History Main / EndOfTheWorldSpecial

* One of the major reveals in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is that everything that happens in the show was started by humans and that none of the people in charge have any attention to prevent the looming EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Everything is part of a huge plan to get an End of the World Special and the actual conflict is between the different groups involved, who have rather different ideas who is going to decide what the remade world will be like.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' the heroic Ryu merges with the insane Fou-Lu to become the greatest of The Endless. The player's choices determine whether Ryu dominates the new entity, and casts the Endless out of the world, or Fou-Lu dominates it and ends humanity.

** In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', You either use the Schwarzwelt to bring humanity under the control of God, use it to bring humanity under the control of the demons, or destroy the Schwarzwelt instead of changing the world with it.

* In ''Comicbook/TheInvisibles'', the character of Dane is, according to some, the [[TheMessiah new Buddha]], who helps 'deliver' humanity into a new state of existence in the final issue (his last words, and the final words of the series, being "[[EpiphanicPrison Our sentence is up]]").

** Also, in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'''s LighterAndSofter AnimatedAdaptation, the middle of the episode seems to invert it with the Joker recreating the universe [[InTheirOwnImage in his own image]] with playing cards via ApocalypseHow Class X-4 during his VillainSong while keeping his henchmen, his girlfriend Harley Quinn, his longtime nemesis Batman, Bat-Mite and Joker-Mite alive, so that he can kill only Batman and then bring him BackFromTheDead repeatedly. However, it takes a DeathMontage, some ReversePsychology from the Dark Knight, a [[JourneyTheCenterOfTheMind Journey to the Center of Batman's Mind]], and an AlternateUniverse in which the Dark Knight doesn't exist, for the Joker to finally snap and relinquish all his [[RealityWarper powers]] to Bat-Mite, after which Bat-Mite finally plays the trope straight by restoring the universe with a snap of his finger, [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong Setting Right What Once Went Wrong]].

** Also, in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'''s LighterAndSofter AnimatedAdaptation, the middle of the episode seems to invert it with the Joker recreating the universe [[InTheirOwnImage in his own image]] with playing cards via ApocalypseHow Class X-4 during his VillainSong while keeping his henchmen, his girlfriend Harley Quinn, his longtime nemesis Batman, Bat-Mite and Joker-Mite alive, so that he can kill only Batman and then bring him BackFromTheDead repeatedly. However, it takes a DeathMontage, some ReversePsychology from the Dark Knight, a [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind Battle in the Center of Batman's Mind]], and an AlternateUniverse in which the Dark Knight doesn't exist, for the Joker to finally snap and relinquish all his [[RealityWarper powers]] to Bat-Mite, after which Bat-Mite finally plays the trope straight by restoring the universe with a snap of his finger, [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong Setting Right What Once Went Wrong]].

** Also, in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'''s LighterAndSofter AnimatedAdaptation, the middle of the episode seems to invert it with the Joker recreating the universe [[InTheirOwnImage in his own image]] with playing cards via ApocalypseHow Class X-4 during his VillainSong while keeping his henchmen, his girlfriend Harley Quinn, his longtime nemesis Batman, Bat-Mite and Joker-Mite alive, so that he can only kill Batman and then bring him BackFromTheDead repeatedly. However, it takes a DeathMontage, some ReversePsychology from the Dark Knight, a [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind Battle in the Center of Batman's Mind]], and an AlternateUniverse in which the Dark Knight doesn't exist, for the Joker to finally snap and relinquish all his [[RealityWarper powers]] to Bat-Mite, after which Bat-Mite finally plays the trope straight by restoring the universe with a snap of his finger, [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong Setting Right What Once Went Wrong]].

** Also, in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'''s LighterAndSofter AnimatedAdaptation, the middle of the episode seems to invert it with the Joker recreating the universe [[InTheirOwnImage in his own image]] with playing cards via ApocalypseHow Class X-4 while keeping his henchmen, his girlfriend Harley Quinn, his longtime nemesis Batman, Bat-Mite and Joker-Mite alive, so that he can only kill Batman and then bring him BackFromTheDead repeatedly. However, it takes a DeathMontage, some ReversePsychology from the Dark Knight, a [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind Battle in the Center of Batman's Mind]], and an AlternateUniverse in which the Dark Knight doesn't exist, for the Joker to finally snap and relinquish all his [[RealityWarper powers]] to Bat-Mite, after which Bat-Mite finally plays the trope straight by restoring the universe with a snap of his finger, [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong Setting Right What Once Went Wrong]].

** Also, in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'''s LighterAndSofter AnimatedAdaptation, the middle of the episode seems to invert it with the Joker recreating the universe [[InTheirOwnImage in his own image]] with playing cards via ApocalypseHow Class X-4 while keeping his henchmen, his girlfriend Harley Quinn, his longtime nemesis Batman, Bat-Mite and Joker-Mite alive, so that he can only kill Batman and then bring him BackFromTheDead repeatedly. However, it takes a DeathMontage, some ReversePsychology from the Dark Knight, a [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind Battle in the Center of Batman's Mind]], and an AlternateUniverse in which the Dark Knight doesn't exist, for the Joker to relinquish all his [[RealityWarper powers]] to Bat-Mite, after which Bat-Mite finally plays the trope straight by restoring the universe with a snap of his finger, [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong Setting Right What Once Went Wrong]].

** If you didn't like the Love Comedy Sequence, the Movie version goes for the entire world melting into oceans of womb juice that resembles tang, then all of it being sucked into the Vagina Hands of a Planetary Sized Naked Teenage Girl with Angel Wings, while playing the most [[SoundtrackDissonance comforting]] [[SanitySlippageSong suicide]] [[BSODSong song]] [[LyricalDissonance in the]] [[{{Troperiffic}} history of anime]]. In English. [[MindScrew Yes.]] Now imagine if you were Japanese and didn't understand a word of what they were singing. It would be like OminousLatinChanting, but...worse.

* The premise of the [[MarvelUniverse Marvel]] CrossOver event ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' when the ScarletWitch goes insane and uses her [[RealityWarper powers]] to remake the world so that mutants are the ruling race. At the end, she does it again, reverting the world to normal but leaving the mutant population at a tenth of its former size.
* At the end of the Comicbook/{{Superman}} storyline ''Comicbook/EmperorJoker'', Joker, being SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker, destroyed the universe. Afterwards, Superman supervises Mr. Mxyzptlk rebuilding the universe, with the help of the Spectre.

* In the Warhammer 40000 HorusHeresy series, this trope is played with twice in the "maybe vision, maybe time travel" sort of way: first, [[BigBad Horus]] is whisked to the future where the Empire has been stagnating for thousands of years, the Emperor rules as a living god to all his subjects, and half the Primarchs (Horus included) seem to have been wiped from history. He decides to "fix the galaxy" by turning against his father...not realizing that he was being directly lied to, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy and that vision would come about]] ''[[SelfFulfillingProphecy because]]'' [[SelfFulfillingProphecy of his treachery.]] Later on, [[ReverseMole Alpharius]] has a similar experience, and has to choose between siding with the Emperor and watching all of Mankind continue to stagnate and bloat until Chaos implodes and destroys the galaxy, or side with Horus to help him win, the universe goes through ''hell'' for a couple of centuries, then Horus has a WhatHaveIDone moment and starts a(nother) self-hating civil war that wipes out the rest of humanity but saves the cosmos at large. He joins Horus, figuring a race-wide Seppuku was better than the end of everything; what actually happens is basically [[CrapsackWorld the worst parts of both outcomes.]]

* At the end of ''BreathOfFireIV'' the heroic Ryu merges with the insane Fou-Lu to become the greatest of The Endless. The player's choices determine whether Ryu dominates the new entity, and casts the Endless out of the world, or Fou-Lu dominates it and ends humanity.

** In ''{{Persona 2}}: Innocent Sin'', after Nyarlathotep destroys the world, Philemon tells the heroes that they can recreate the world with their wills for the better, [[VictoryGuidedAmnesia but lose their memories of each other.]] Three of them imagine better futures for themselves but the last member doesn't want to forget, causing the next game's plot, ''Eternal Punishment''.

* The {{Infocom}} InteractiveFiction game ''VideoGame/{{Spellbreaker}}'' ends with the player confronted by his EvilTwin, created as a result of EquivalentExchange, who it turns out has been manipulating the player into gathering the CosmicKeystones he needs to remake the world in his own image with [[AGodAmI himself as its god.]] The player has only a narrow window of opportunity to sabotage his EndOfTheWorldSpecial; it's possible to accidentally [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt unmake the entire universe]] as a result of removing the centerpiece of the tesseract entirely, but by replacing it with something non-magical, the universe is remade without magic, and without the player's evil doppelganger.

* ''VideoGame/FableII'' ends with your character getting the keys to the Spire, the reality altering device that Lucien fucked you over so many times to try and power. Here you must make TheSadisticChoice: raise your family (who Lucien has murdered) from the dead...or raise the thousands who died in the Spire's construction in their stead. Or just get a lot of money.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' ends with Link touching the triforce and making a wish on it to revive several people that had died, and generally give a happy end to everyone he's met.

* ''SuperMarioGalaxy''. At the end of the game, Bowser's galaxy collapses into a black hole that sucks up the whole universe [[strike: [[BeavisAndButthead and then grinds it up and sends it all to Hell]]]] [[ApocalypseWow and blows up all of existence.]] [[PhysicalGod Rosalina]] creates a brand new universe.

** Except for a different mascot for his favorite smoothy shop and a [[YourRewardIsClothes sweet hoodie]].

** In the final issue of his run on ''Comicbook/{{New X-Men}}'', Jean Grey uses the Phoenix force to amputate a dystopian future and release her husband from despair and grief into the bargain (although that wasn't Grant Morrison's decision; he was told to by [[ExecutiveMeddling the editors]] to make room for the RelationshipSue).

*** Annoyingly enough, this has even carried on into Fanfics, where Third Impact basically means the writer can do WHATEVER THE FUCKING HELL THEY WANT, no and's, if's, or but's. Oddly, they all make more sense than whatever happened in the original, so maybe it's for the best.

* Happens in the film ''Film/DarkCity''.

* The premise of the [[MarvelUniverse Marvel]] CrossOver event ''HouseOfM'' when the ScarletWitch goes insane and uses her [[RealityWarper powers]] to remake the world so that mutants are the ruling race. At the end, she does it again, reverting the world to normal but leaving the mutant population at a tenth of its former size.

* Sort of happens in ''AceLightning'' - except that Mark only has the option of deleting Ace's "world" (i.e. the videogame) from his harddrive, and he chooses not to.

* In the ''AngryBeavers'' episode "Millennium Beavers", Dagget and Norbert are chosen by a mysterious disembodied voice and whisked away to a mysterious void to create a new universe after the ending of the old one. When the brothers screw things up with their squabbling, the PowersThatBe decide to give up and continue on with the previous universe, putting Dag and Norb back where they belong.
* In ''Ben10Omniverse'', Ben uses Alien X to restore the universe after the [[DoomsdayDevice Anialargh]] destroys it. Since Alien X is an omnipotent RealityWarper, he can remake the universe in any way he sees fit. He sees fit to remake it with no changes whatsoever.

* The city-building gameplay elements of ''DarkCloud'' could be considered an expression of this concept. The male protagonist is gifted by the Fairy King with a magical apparatus called the Atlamillia which endows him with the creative potential to salvage lost resources and rebuild the world that was destroyed by the Dark Genie during the game's opening.

* FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates is based heavily around this. Beings called Star Singers are capable of choosing between a nearly infinite number of alternate worlds, and all magic makes subtle use of this. The villains desire to gain the ability as well drives the plot. [[spoiler: In the end the heroes gain the true version of the ability, allowing them to create an ideal world rather then just selecting a flawed one.]]

** It was supposed to be explained further in the third season, except there was no third season.

* In WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee, the fourth-year anniversary special of Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, a massive, living retcon threatens to consume all of existence. The Nostalgia Critic decides that the best way to stop it is to [[HeroicSacrifice merge with it and create a new version of existence.]] He saves his friends and the world, but the cost is that he's either [[KilledOffForReal dead]] or AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.
** The nature of which is later Retconed when The Nostalgia Critic is effectively UnCancelled by Doug Walker.

* In the novel ''[[{{Foundation}} Foundation's Edge]]'' by Creator/IsaacAsimov, the protagonist is faced with the choice of giving galactic power to the Foundation, the Second Foundation, or Gaia.

* In the book ''Literature/GoodOmens'', Adam is encouraged to greatly reshape the world and rebuild it to his design, but decides to simply let the world continue.

A more heroic example of the villainous ambition to remake the world InTheirOwnImage. In video games, can be a form of MultipleEndings. Related to ResetButton.

If you have time, please take time to put examples in alphabetical order. This page Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings should help you with that.

* ''VideoGame/PennyArcadeAdventures'': The metaplot of the game is that the world goes through a continual cycle of destruction and rebirth, [[CrapsackWorld becoming more horrible and deranged each time]]. The Brahe clan has conceived a plan to stop this cycle by preventing the world from being reborn, sending everything to oblivion. Tycho, one of the protagonists, breaks from his clan and instead tries to seed the next rebirth with a perfectly good individual: [[spoiler:his niece Anne-Claire]]. In the end, he succeeds.

* Valiant Comics' Solar, Man of the Atom had done this subconsciously, and was later implied to have done it many times without even realizing it (and a few times deliberately as well).

* At the end of ''BreathOfFireIV'' the heroic Ryu merges with the insane Fou-Lu to become greatest of The Endless. The player's choices determine whether Ryu dominates the new entity, and casts the Endless out of the world, or Fou-Lu dominates it and ends humanity.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Parting of the Ways", Rose absorbs the [[GreenRocks time vortex]] and acquires godlike powers. Once she's used them to solve their current problem, the Doctor absorbs the energy into himself before it kills her (providing an excuse for him to "[[TheNthDoctor regenerate]]" into a different actor) and removes the inconvenient godlike abilities from the plot. Rose uses her powers to wipe out the Daleks (except for the ones who [[JokerImmunity survived in another dimension]]), to resurrect Jack Harkness ([[WhoWantsToLiveForever a little too well, as it turns out]]), and to write the words "[[ArcWords Bad Wolf]]" across time and space to [[StableTimeLoop cause these chain of events]].