History Main / AlreadyUndoneForYou

Many situations of this type can be explained away with a HandWave, and the temptation to do so on this page will likely be great. Common [[JustifiedTrope justifications]] include giving the BigBad a special pass that prevents the traps from triggering, or saying that the BigBad himself set the traps to discourage pursuit. Recognize, however, that most of these justifications have already been presented several times and erased because this isn't the place for them. Take all discussions to the discussion page!

** For that matter, how does the first trap keep getting reset? Indiana Jones movies are full of these things.
*** The first trap resets itself as part of its operation (witness the RedShirt who went in right before him). Indy just wedged something in the [[BambooTechnology gears]] to stop it. [[FridgeLogic Not that it should take any more than two tries to get past that trap]].

* Averted in ''HarryPotter and the Philosopher's Stone'', in which [[spoiler:Quirrel]]'s progress through the gauntlet leaves definite signs that are commented upon.
** But played straight in ''Half-Blood Prince'', where [[spoiler:the potion covering the Horcrux has been replenished despite the Horcrux having been removed already. (Regulus refilled the potion himself to keep Voldemort from discovering the Horcrux's disappearance.)]]

* Averted in the legendary ''DungeonsAndDragons'' module "TombOfHorrors", which specifically states who resets the {{Death Trap}}s and how.
** Partially because the caretakers also perform a second function in the dungeon- Punishing those who try to bypass traps [[NoFairCheating through the ethereal plane]], where they stay when not resetting traps.

** ''Riven'' is a more straightforward approach. [[spoiler:Gehn]] used multiple Linking Books as entry points to Riven from his own Age, but their Riven counterparts needed to be powered to work and, in this case, all the power came from [[spoiler:the golden dome facility]]. Turning it off made it impossible to use the Linking Books and trapped the person who turned it off on Riven, and that doesn't count the bridge orientations. The only way to assume this works is if [[spoiler:Gehn]] was able to produce a portable power source long after establishing the existing one.
*** He ''did'', or rather, he obtained one at least. He managed to steal one of the items the rebels use to power their own books.

* ''GoldenSun'' is {{egregious}} because in the second game, Alex discusses how poorly first-game antagonists Saturos and Menardi were at solving the puzzles. Can't you just see it? "Menardi! Melt those frozen platforms and push that block all the way back around! Ungrow that vine! Turn off the invisible water platforms!"
* ''GodOfWar'' features this in spades. When Kratos traverses the dungeons to get to [[MacGuffin Pandora's Box/The Sisters of Fate]], he finds that hundreds of adventurers have died trying to get the treasure as well. (Their bodies are lying all over the place, and you even fight a few others en route in the second game.) This is all very well and good, except that not only do many of the doors require all manner of oddly shaped keys to open (from a ram's horn to ''specific human skulls'') but also in order to progress it is often necessary for Kratos to smash through walls and on occasion ''destroy entire buildings''. So does this mean the temples rebuild themselves every time someone eats it on the way there?

** There's a simple explanation for it when you really think about it: [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Shorn is a prick.]]]]

* In ''FinalFantasyII'', when the powerful White Mage Of Various Names That Start With 'Min' disappears while searching for the ultimate magic Ultima, you have to track him down. You do this by basically do everything he presumably already had to do - collect the White Mask and the Black Mask, get past the doppleganger, travel throughout powerful dungeons, and use the Crystal Key to open the Mysidian Tower. Yet when you reach the final door before Ultima, you find that he made it there too. Did he just leave the masks and rod behind and get there in some other fashion? It's never explained.

** And then ''Portal 2'' explains it all by stating that [[spoiler:yes, literally everything can be reset]].

A special kind of FridgeLogic that asks how the scenario returned to its initial conditions if the situation should logically have called for AlreadyDoneForYou. A ResetButton that hit the terrain just before you got there.

* ''GoldenSun'' is especially [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregious]] because in the second game, Alex discusses how poorly first-game antagonists Saturos and Menardi were at solving the puzzles. Can't you just see it? "Menardi! Melt those frozen platforms and push that block all the way back around! Ungrow that vine! Turn off the invisible water platforms!"

* In ''IndianaJones and the Last Crusade'', stepping on the wrong letters [[spoiler:in God's name, IN LATIN]] leads to them crumbling beneath you and throwing you into a deep pit. Did nobody ever go through in the centuries before Indy did, or never step on the wrong letters? Or does the knight guarding the grail have his own little kiln to replace the missing letters?

*** The first trap resets itself as part of its operation (witness the RedShirt who went in right before him). Indy just wedged something in the [[BambooTechnology gears]] to stop it.

** Partially because the caretakers also perform a second function in the dungeon- Punishing those who try to bypass traps through the ethereal plane, where they stay when not resetting traps.

*** Most likely he hadn't went through the door until Mario had opened it with the stars [[spoiler: Doopliss was disguised as Frankly]]. He could have easily just followed Mario until the tower waited for Mario to enter it then went to Gloomtail's room waited for the floor to lower. [[spoiler: Beldam was working for the queen she could have known about the traps and things since that all was the queens palace.]]

* The ''{{Myst}}'' series of games do a good job of providing a setting in which you are following in the footsteps of people who had been there before you. But most of the levers and buttons have been left in positions that leave the machinery in the least useful configuration. This is justified in Myst III: Exile, as the puzzles have been deliberately set up by the BigBad. But in game 1, did Sirrus and Achenar go around resetting everything on the various worlds just for the fun of it before getting trapped in the prison books? In game 2, who left all of the bridges and doors in their locked positions, if some of them could not have possibly been closed from the other side?

** And then Portal 2 explains it all by stating that [[spoiler:yes, literally everything can be reset]].

* In ''IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', stepping on the wrong letters [[spoiler:in God's name, IN LATIN]] leads to them crumbling beneath you and throwing you into a deep pit. Did nobody ever go through in the centuries before Indy did, or never step on the wrong letters? Or does the knight guarding the grail have his own little kiln to replace the missing letters?

* In ''PaperMario: The Thousand-Year Door'', Grodus enters the Palace of Shadow before Mario does and isn't encountered until the penultimate chamber. However, that doesn't explain how he got there - especially since it is impossible to [[spoiler:return the stairs to the West of the tower to their original state (a corridor leading to Gloomtail) - and Grodus couldn't have dropped the stairs in the first place, since he obviously never solved the eight puzzles in the tower]].

** This may just be this troper [[HandWave handwaving it]], but the Temple for Pandora's Box was comissioned by Zeus so its probably enchanted against permanent destruction, and the Temple of the Fates in the second game, the Fates probably Time Mojo anything severely broken back to functioning order.

** This Troper always assumed that Zero did take care of/distract MOST of the enemies, leaving behind a great deal fewer/ones X would be able to deal with with his "ancient" weapon systems.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In the opening credits of ''{{Monk}}'', Monk adjusts a painting on the wall that is crooked. How did a painting in an obsessive-compulsive's house get crooked in the first place?

** But played straight in ''Half-Blood Prince'', where [[spoiler:the potion covering the Horcrux has been replenished despite the Horcrux having been removed already.]]

A special kind of FridgeLogic that asks how the scenario returned to its initial conditions if the situation should logically have called for AlreadyDoneForYou. A ResetButton that hit the terrain just before you got there. Common [[JustifiedTrope justifications]] include giving the BigBad a special pass that prevents the traps from triggering, or saying that the BigBad himself set the traps to discourage pursuit.

Many situations of this type can be explained away with a HandWave, and the temptation to do so on this page will likely be great. Recognize, however, that most of these justifications have already been presented several times and erased because this isn't the place for them. Take all discussions to the discussion page!

A special kind of FridgeLogic that asks how the scenario returned to its initial conditions if the situation should logically have called for AlreadyDoneForYou. A ResetButton that hit the terrain just before you got there.

Many situations of this type can be explained away with a HandWave (common [[JustifiedTrope justifications]] include giving the BigBad a special pass that prevents the traps from triggering, or saying that the BigBad himself set the traps to discourage pursuit), and the temptation to do so on this page will likely be great. Recognize, however, that most of these justifications have already been presented several times and erased because this isn't the place for them. Take all discussions to the discussion page!

** Arguably justified; given it's enchanted so you can't just reach in and take it, there's no reason it shouldn't also be enchanted so you can't drink the poison a little bit at a time over a long period of time.
*** That's some awfully smart poison.
*** You mean some awfully ''magic'' poison. The simple explanation here is that it's justified because, quite literally, {{A Wizard Did It}}. The more complicated explanation is that [[spoiler:we can't be sure which wizard. Either some enchantment of Voldemort's reset the trap, or Regulus did it after swapping the lockets, possibly hoping it would buy him some time. It may not have even been the same as the initial trap, but instead something of his own to try and harm Voldemort.]]

A special kind of FridgeLogic that asks how the scenario returned to its initial conditions if the situation should logically have called for AlreadyDoneForYou. A ResetButton that hit the terrain just before you got there.

The complementary half of this trope is TookAShortcut. Whereas that trope asks how a person got somewhere faster than you, this trope is more concerned with why his passage didn't disturb the environment.

Many situations of this type can be explained away with a HandWave, and the temptation to do so on this page will likely be great. Recognize, however, that most of these justifications have already been presented several times and erased because this isn't the place for them. Take all discussions to the discussion page!

* In the opening credits of ''{{Monk}}'', Monk adjusts a painting on the wall that is crooked.

** But played straight in ''Half-Blood Prince'', where [[spoiler:the potion covering the Horcrux has been replenished despite the Horcrux's having been removed already.]]

The opposite of AlreadyDoneForYou.