History Main / InSpiteOfaNail

** One ''Infinite Worlds'' article in ''Pyramid'' describes a town in the Vinland of Midgard a world based on "what if the Norse colonies actually stuck, and it was now the 15th century?" Despite the massively divergent history and the fact it appears to be three centuries too early, the town is home to a man named Beinir Folkmarsson who, in addition to having a name that looks like UsefulNotes/BenjaminFranklin, also has a backstory that comprises being apprenticed at a print-shop in another town, jumping his indenture and setting up shop as a printer and natural philosopher in Fimhálsar, while also writing anonymous satires. Homeline researchers used to study him as the best example of a "personal echo" in a highly divergent timeline, but stopped because an alternate Benjamin Franklin is the sort of person who ''notices'' weird outsiders taking an interest in him.

* ''VideoGame/MariAndTheBlackTower'': In the ending, Ned points out that in Timeline 0, [[spoiler:Matthew's book about the Black Tower vanishing is still mostly the same, and that it's possible that the Black Tower may resurface again to wipe out humanity despite Abbie defeating Morgoth]].

* ''WesterAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'' introduces the concept of "canon events" into the Spider-Man mythos. That there are certain life events every Spider-Person ''must'' experience (bit by a radioactive spider, loss of a parental figure, etc.). And though the details and specifics may change dependent on the particular reality, these canon events are Anthropic to being Spider-Man, and so cannot be changed. [[spoiler: Attempts to change canon events more often than not result in that entire reality being undone.]]

* ''SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'' introduces the concept of "canon events" into the Spider-Man mythos. That there are certain life events every Spider-Person ''must'' experience (bit by a radioactive spider, loss of a parental figure, etc.). And though the details and specifics may change dependent on the particular reality, these canon events are Anthropic to being Spider-Man, and so cannot be changed. [[spoiler: Attempts to change canon events more often than not result in that entire reality being undone.]]

* ''Film/{{Bright}}'' is set in a universe where magic exists, mankind exist side by side with fantastical creatures like orcs, elves and fairies and over 2,000 years ago, an EvilOverlord attempted to take over the world and it took an alliance of all nine peoples to defeat him. Despite these drastic changes and that FantasticRacism is rampant, human history seems no different that of the real world - aside from the technology being the same and the cities being in the same locations, among other things, ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'', the battle of the Alamo, the Crips and Bloods, and Black Lives Matter all get referenced at some point.

* In ''Manga/TokyoRevengers'', no matter how many times [[MentalTimeTravel Takemichi travels back to the past]] and [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong alters events in the timeline]] to prevent the [[JapaneseDelinquents Tokyo Manji Gang]] from becoming [[TheSyndicate the worst criminal organization in Japan]], 12 years later [[TheLostLenore his girlfriend Hina still ends up murdered.]] The only thing consistent across every timeline is that [[TheLeader Mikey]] is nowhere to be found, [[TheLancer Draken]] is either dead or on death row, [[BigBad Kisaki Tetta]] has [[TheCorrupter corrupted]] Toman with his influence and eventually calls a hit on Hina. {{Justified|Trope}}, since it turns out that [[spoiler:Kisaki has climbed his way through the ranks of Toman and turned it into what it is in the modern day in order to become the greates delinquent in history and show up Takemichi, who was a delinquent when he was dating Hina during his childhood and [[OldFlame remains the object of her affection in modern times]] even after they [[BreakHerHeartToSaveHer break up]]. Kisaki has Hina assassinated [[NotGoodWithRejection because she turns his love confession down in every timeline.]]]]

* This is the reason the protagonist travels into the future in ''Film/TheTimeMachine2002'': unable to prevent a certain event in the past despite his repeated efforts, he heads ''forwards'' in hopes of finding someone who can tell him why.

* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros'', the fantastic elements all come from a parallel universe in which dinosaurs never became extinct and eventually evolved into humanoid creatures with a combination of human and reptilian traits. Despite this, history has broadly played out the same to the point where, among other things, the Statue of Liberty exists in that universe.

* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'', only the GDI campaign is considered canon. Yet, no matter which campaign is played, Vega will "borrow" Kane's alien ship, the GDI base in Hammerfest will fall, and Kane will create a mega Tiberium missile. The difference is that in the Nod campaign, Slavik managed to retrieve the ship's contents, Hammerfest remained in Nod hands ([[spoiler: and was used as the staging ground for their missiles to destroy ''Philadelphia'']]), and the mega missile is fired off. But in the GDI campaign, it was [=McNeil=] who recovered the ship's contents, Hammerfest was eventually recovered (and Nod attacked it in the first place for the Disruptor sonic crystals rather than [[spoiler:to launch missiles from]]), and the missile becomes scrap metal. Oh, and Umagon gets captured in both campaigns, although both the causes and aftermath of the captures are different. Slavik's appearance in the expansion, ''Firestorm'', is interesting in that it relies on things that happen in the Nod campaign (escaping his attempted execution at the start, then escaping GDI custody halfway through) that are not once mentioned in the GDI campaign, which leaves it ambiguous whether these are also events that happen no matter what which the GDI campaign is simply skipping over due to [[AdaptationalVillainy presenting GDI in a more negative light]] and/or not being as important as dealing with Kane, or if the opening Nod power struggle and Slavik's capture by GDI simply don't happen in the "true" canon.

* ''LightNovel/KagerouDaze'': In the second timeline shown in the manga, Ene is living in Shintaro's computer, just like in the first timeline. This happens despite the fact that the event that led to her doing that, [[spoiler: being killed by the Clearing Eyes Snake in Kenjirou's body,]] did not happen in the second timeline.
* ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'' ends this way. Despite [[spoiler:Shikizaki Kiki's attempts to ScrewDestiny with the Deviant Blades created via methods from the future]], history managed to correct itself. This is because [[spoiler:the people he intended on carrying out his plans, his descendant and his ultimate creation, simply refused to play their part.]]

* In ''Manga/TokyoRevengers'', no matter how many times [[MentalTimeTravel Takemichi travels back to the past]] and [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong alters events in the timeline]] to prevent the [[JapaneseDelinquents Tokyo Manji Gang]] from becoming [[TheSyndicate the worst criminal organization in Japan]], 12 years later [[TheLostLenore his girlfriend Hina still ends up murdered.]] The only thing consistent across every timeline is that [[BigBad Kisaki Tetta]] inevitably corrupts Toman with his influence and eventually calls a hit on Hina. {{Justified|Trope}}, since it turns out that [[spoiler:[[BigBad Kisaki Tetta]] has her assassinated [[NotGoodWithRejection because she turns his love confession down in every timeline.]]]]

* Near the end of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' [[spoiler:it is discovered that the alchemist world is an alternate history of ours that branched at least 400 years ago with the discovery of alchemy. In spite of this, TheMovie shows several of the characters also exist in "our world," though with different histories and motivations.]]

* ''Anime/ReadOrDie'' takes place in a history where the British Empire remains the most powerful force on Earth and cloning is a viable science, yet George W. Bush is still the (at the time) President of the United States, and Creator/StephenKing still wrote ''Literature/{{Misery}}''. Some or all of this may be a result of [[spoiler:Gentleman screwing with the Book of Truth]].
** Technically it's not Bush. [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Just someone who looks and sounds an awful lot like him.]]

* ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'' ends this way. Despite [[spoiler:Shikizaki Kiki's attempts to ScrewDestiny with the Deviant Blades created via methods from the future]], history managed to correct itself. This is because [[spoiler:the people he intended on carrying out his plans, his descendant and his ultimate creation, simply refused to play their part.]]
* A major frustration to Homura Akemi in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''; no matter what she does in her indeterminate number of attempts to [[spoiler: rewind the events of the series and start them over differently,]] the outcome is always the same. She refers to it herself as an "endless maze".
** As well as the finale; [[spoiler: Madoka's wish {{Ret Con}}s all witches out of existence, meaning every death at the hands of a witch (MagicalGirl ''or'' {{Muggle}}) didn't happen, saving countless numbers of lives who could then do more things and impact the world. Needless to say, this should radically change the course of human history, as witches and magical girls had been shown to have been around for hundreds of years... yet Mitakihara, at least, looks more or less the same. And Magical Girls still risk life and limb to fight despair, only in the form of 'Wraiths' instead of Witches]].
* ''Manga/{{Psyren}}'': After seeing [[AfterTheEnd the wreck that the world will be in just 10 years]] [[spoiler: and learning that the catalysts leading to those events will occur ''much'' sooner]], Ageha and friends quickly begin investigating said future in an attempt to reverse the damage in the present. While their efforts ''do'' bear fruit ([[spoiler: letting some previously-doomed friends survive to form LaResistance]]), they realize that it will take ''far'' more drastic changes to prevent the apocalypse than simply altering a few of the particulars. [[spoiler: Also, the biggest catalyst is the arrival of an EldritchAbomination from outer space. [[OhCrap ...yeah, that'll take some effort.]]]]

* ''LightNovel/KagerouDaze'': In the second timeline shown in the manga, Ene is living in Shintaro's computer, just like in the first timeline. This happens despite the fact that the event that led to her doing that, [[spoiler: being killed by the Clearing Eyes Snake in Kenjirou's body,]] did not happen in the second timeline.
* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in the ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'' thanks to the concept of "Quantum Timelocks", events which must happen across all {{alternate timeline}}s to allow them to remain uniform. This prevents the idea of "infinite realities from infinite choices" from clogging up the multiverse, by using the "core timeline", the one with the highest chance of survival, as a template for all others. While alternate timelines can be divergent in ways that will not change history on a grand scale (for example, if King Arthur were a woman instead of a man), they cannot be too divergent lest they disobey the Quantum Timelocks (for example, the fall of Camelot cannot be prevented). If a timeline disobeys a Quantum Timelock and becomes too divergent, then its odds of survival plummet and it will very likely become a dead world; said dead timeline is designated a "Lostbelt," and deleted from the multiverse to conserve energy. In other words, the only "nails" allowed to exist are the ones that do not lead the human world to be lost.
%%** The ''Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks'' ends ambiguously with [[spoiler:[[BadFuture Archer]] monologuing about his/Shirou's tragic life as Shirou is seen making his way through the Middle Eastern desert, just as Archer once did in his own life. Seemingly, it seems that the events of the route were AllForNothing -- Archer's intervention in this Shirou's life did nothing, Rin is nowhere to be found despite promising to stay by Shirou's side so that he wouldn't turn into Archer, and most importantly, Shirou didn't heed his lesson. But just before the screen cuts to "End", Archer ends his monologue with [[IRegretNothing "But I was not wrong."]] -- meaning that Shirou chose to live the same life as Archer, but unlike his future self, he didn't regret it.]]
* ''Manga/DinosaurSanctuary'' is set in a world where LivingDinosaurs have been discovered on a [[LostWorld remote island]] in 1946, and the [[FossilRevival revival of extinct animals through genetic-engineering]] was accomplished in 1987, leading to [[ExtinctAnimalPark dinosaur zoos]] becoming a reality. Despite all that, ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' apparently still ended up being made, as evidenced by the information post for Enoshima Dinoland's ''Dilophosaurus'' exhibit clearing up that it did not have a frill or venomous spit (which suggests the revival of ''Dilophosaurus'' occurred after 1993). Then again, Creator/MichaelCrichton could have considered the controversies of both dinosaur zoos and the resurrection of extinct species, so he wrote ''Jurassic Park'' to address them.

* ''Anime/Persona4GoldenTheAnimation'': Yu's [[NewGamePlus more outgoing and savvy]] compared to in ''Anime/Persona4TheAnimation'', but it doesn't help him [[spoiler:avoid Izanami's "push" or prevent the murders]].

* ''Manga/DinosaurSanctuary'' is set in a world where LivingDinosaurs have been discovered on a [[LostWorld remote island]] in 1946, and the [[FossilRevival revival of extinct animals through genetic-engineering]] was accomplished in 1987, leading to [[ExtinctAnimalPark dinosaur zoos]] becoming a reality. Despite all that, ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' apparently still ended up being made, as evidenced by the information post for Enoshima Dinoland's ''Dilophosaurus'' exhibit clearing up that it did not have a frill or venomous spit (which suggests the revival of ''Dilophosaurus'' occurred after 1993).

* ''Manga/DinosaurSanctuary'' is set in a world where LivingDinosaurs have been discovered on a [[LostWorld remote island]] in 1946, and [[FossilRevival revival of extinct animals through genetic-engineering]] and [[ExtinctAnimalPark dinosaur zoos]] became a reality in 1987. Despite all that, ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' apparently still ended up being made, as evidenced by the information post for Enoshima Dinoland's ''Dilophosaurus'' exhibit clearing up that it did not have a frill or venomous spit (which suggests the revival of ''Dilophosaurus'' occurred after 1993).

* ''Manga/DinosaurSanctuary'' is set in a world where LivingDinosaurs have been discovered on a [[LostWorld remote island]] in 1946, and revival of extinct animals through genetic-engineering became a reality in 1987. Despite all that, ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' apparently still ended up being made, as evidenced by the information post for Enoshima Dinoland's ''Dilophosaurus'' exhibit clearing up that it did not have a frill or venomous spit (which suggests the revival of ''Dilophosaurus'' occurred after 1993).

* ''Manga/DinosaurSanctuary'' is set in a world where LivingDinosaurs have been discovered on a [[LostWorld remote island]] in 1946, and revival of extinct animals through genetic-engineering became a reality in 1987. Despite all that, ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' apparently still ended up being made, as evidenced by the information post for Enoshima Dinoland's ''Dilophosaurus'' exhibit clearing up that it did not have a frill or venomous spit (which suggests the revival ''Dilophosaurus'' occurred after 1993).

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' is built on Catarina trying to avoid her scripted fate of being killed or exiled for bullying Maria, leading her to throw the entire story OffTheRails in the process. Despite this, the scene where she's confronted in front of the entire school for her "crimes" still plays out just like in the game [[spoiler:due to her accusers being manipulated by dark magic]]. Of course, Catarina ''hasn't'' been bullying Maria (or anyone else for that matter) and everyone quickly speaks up in her defense.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has the episode "Road to the Multiverse" where Brian and Stewie travel through different alternate realities including one where the Japanese won UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, another where people have two heads and another one where dogs are the dominant sentient species and keep humans as pets. In all of them Quahog and the main characters exist, with the only apparent exception being a world where the last Ice Age didn't end and the town's place is occupied by a glacier. The first world they visit is even stated as one where Christianity never existed, and yet St. Peter's Basilica still exists and is identical to ours... except the Sistine Chapel consists entirely of Jodie Foster's portraits painted by John Hinckley Jr. Also, in EVERY universe Meg is a ButtMonkey, and she's still one of the ugly girls including in the universe where everybody is attractive.