History Main / SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong

* The final arc of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' reveals that this trope is the motivation of [[BigBad Leonard Testarossa]] and his allies -- their goal is to send the Whisperer [[spoiler:Sophia, possessing the body of Kaname Chidori]] 18 years backwards to prevent the Yamsk 11 incident from happening, which would change the world into one more like RealLife. The moment where it all breaks down is [[spoiler:when Sousuke is apparently killed by Leonard and Sophia uses this to persuade Kaname, showing her a reality where Sousuke was an ordinary boy rather than a child soldier. At first Kaname seems happy, but she realizes that he's not the same Sousuke she fell in love with and rejects the plan, refusing to run away from reality even if it means living in a world where Sousuke is dead. Thankfully though, he isn't.]]

* This turned out to be the goal of [[spoiler:Queen Elisha]] in ''LightNovel/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom.'' It turns out that [[spoiler:her]] Dark Magic (in this setting, [[DarkIsNotEvil “Dark”]] simply means “Uncategorical” and not evil) is the ability to [[MentalTimeTravel send the memories of herself and others]] to their past selves, who experience them as lived memories. [[spoiler:She has attempted this multiple times, and failed every time. Except]] this time, through a combination of making Souma the king and not an easily-removed Prime Minister, and the birth of Liscia, who would grow to be Souma’s strong right arm, it looks like the kingdom is getting a GoldenAge.

* ''Literature/OperationDoOver'': Mason and Ty are stereotypical geeks and best friends until they let their rivalry for ClassPrincess Ava's affections turn them into bitter enemies for the next five years (which also costs both of them a chance with Ava). This leads to Mason being expelled after a fight with Ty during their junior year and getting into a car crash soon afterward. However, the car crash sends Mason's consciousness back in time to when he was twelve, right before he and Ty first met Ava. Mason strives to keep Ava from coming between him and Ty (which is easier said than done), keep his parents from divorcing, ensure that his dog will not die in a traffic accident, treat his and Ty's ButtMonkey friend Clarisse better, and find a way to stop the bullying that will plague him for the next five years.[[/folder]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', VillainOfTheWeek Francis Grey spent 18 years in prison over a simple mistake that [[DisasterDominoes spiraled out of control]] before snapping, discovering his TimeMaster powers, and attempting to [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery seek revenge on all of Gotham]]. [[PyrrhicVillainy He succeeds, but accidentally kills his son in the process]] and the VillainousBSOD he suffered gave his powers the boost he needed to go back and avoid going to prison in the first place.

* ''Fanfic/ThereWasOnceAnAvengerFromKrypton'': As we learn in Chapter 34 of ''The Girl Who Could Knock Out the Hulk'', [[spoiler: Doom and original Reed's goal is to defeat Thanos with minimal damage to Earth and humanity. When time travel failed, resulting in a PyrrhicVictory at best, they started to explore the Multiverse and came up with their plan to get the Celestials to CosmicRetcon the universe to [[MergedReality add the various crossover elements]] in order to make the world stronger.]]

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' has a unique example of an ''antagonist'' fixing a wrong in the past to advance their agendas.[[spoiler:The Brotherhood of Metallix traveled back in time and prevented the FreakLabIncident that transformed kind veterinarian Ovi Kintobor into the evil Ivo Robotnik. As the doctor played an integral role aiding Sonic and the Freedom Fighters in opposing the faction, this created a BadFuture where the Brotherhood conquered Mobius and renamed it "Planet Metallix". Sonic then went back and SetWrongWhatOnceWentRight, leaving us with the disturbing knowledge that the hero is responsible for unleashing a great evil in the series, even if it was to prevent a greater evil from taking place]].

* PlayedForLaughs during one of WebVideo/RTGame's ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' streams: when he realizes that Magnus can die instead of Ellegaard, he reverts back to an earlier chapter. Not because he cares if Ellegaard lives or dies, but just to kill off [[HateSink Magnus]].

* ''Fanfic/{{Spellbound}}'': Félix eventually learns that his father wants to use the Wish [[spoiler:to undo the creation of the fae (which also involved a Wish). It's implied that this would result in restoring the canon timeline]].

* ''Literature/{{Mouse}}'': [[spoiler:Bliss was born in a dystopian PocketDimension ruled by {{emotion eater}}s and has gone back in time to prevent its creation. She's actually gone back many times, each one resulting in a StableTimeLoop and her death, but she hopes that this time she'll be able to break the cycle.]]

* In ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' storyline, the entire event was kicked off when Namorita, a member of the ComicBook/NewWarriors, fought a villain named Nitro whose ability was to explode. Said explosion killed hundreds, including Namorita herself. Because of this, Namorita's name was posthumously slandered with the rest of the ComicBook/NewWarriors, much to the chagrin of her ex-lover, Richard Ryder aka ComicBook/{{Nova}}, even though they'd been broken up for years at that point. In his eponymous series, Nova is plucked out of the timestream along with a Namorita who is obviously from an era not only before the Civil War incident, but while she and Ryder were still lovers. Later, when the cosmic forces that threw them together start to send them back where they belong, Nova (being a {{Paragon}}-type character), refuses to let Namorita return to her own time (where she'll be doomed to repeat the same fate) and brings her to the present instead... consequences be damned.

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[[caption-width-right:250:Unfortunately, now that the plague had been erased from history, [[GoneHorriblyRight no one knows what to reward him for]].]]

* ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' gives the franchise its [[EarnYourHappyEnding long-overdue happy ending]] by [[spoiler:having Shinji use [[PhysicalGod the power of Instrumentality]] to undo the three Impacts and write the Angels out of mankind's history]].

* ''Literature/{{Mouse}}'': [[spoiler:Bliss was born in a dystopian PocketDimension ruled by {{emotion eater}}s and has gone back in time to prevent its creation. She's actually gone back many times, each one resulting in a StableTimeLoop and her death, but she hopes that this time she'll be able to break the cycle.

* ''Fanfic/DoingItRightThisTime'':As usual in PeggySue stories one of the goals of Shinji, Asuka and Rei is averting TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Another goal is fixing the unholy mess was their relationship and learning to get along well with each other (which will lead to unexpected results known as [[OneTrueThreesome "Israfel Special"]]).

* This turned out to be the goal of [[Spoiler:Queen Elisha]] in ''LightNovel/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom.'' It turns out that [[Spoiler:her]] Dark Magic (in this setting, [[DarkIsNotEvil “Dark”]] simply means “Uncategorical” and not evil) is the ability to [[MentalTimeTravel send the memories of herself and others]] to their past selves, who experience them as lived memories. [[Spoiler:She has attempted this multiple times, and failed every time. Except]] this time, through a combination of making Souma the king and not an easily-removed Prime Minister, and the birth of Liscia, who would grow to be Souma’s strong right arm, it looks like the kingdom is getting a GoldenAge.

** In the Grand Magic Games arc, [[spoiler:the Lucy from the BadFuture wants to stop the opening of the Eclipse Gate that would release an army of 10,000 dragons from the past to devastate the world and kill nearly everyone. Things get complicated when it turns out there's a Rogue from ''another'' BadFuture where she succeeded, but Acnologia took over the world and killed nearly everyone, so he wants to use the dragons to kill Acnologia and rule the world. On top of ''that'', Ultear attempts to invoke a DangerousForbiddenTechnique to stop the dragons, but is only able to turn back time for one minute. Luckily for everyone, that one minute gave everyone temporal CombatClairvoyance and most of them were ''dying'' in that time frame, letting them turn the tide of battle.]]

* The basic premise of ''Webcomic/SaveMe'' (the webtoon adaptation of the ''Music/{{BU}}'') is Jin repeatedly rewinding time to save his estranged friends from tragic fates (which include suicide and prison, among other things).