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| 10 | ->''"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"'' |
| 11 | --> -- '''Clarence Odbody''', ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' |
| 12 | |
| 13 | After the short story "The Greatest Gift", later eclipsed by its more famous [[{{Film}} movie]] adaptation ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', a device whereby an external force (usually supernatural) intervenes in a time of crisis to show the character facing said crisis a FlashSideways of how things would have been had one key part of the past gone down differently. Most often, the change is that [[RetGone the character in question had never been born]]. May occur as part of a NearDeathExperience, or [[MakeAWish following]] SmiteMeOhMightySmiter. Episodes with this plot usually take place around Christmas time, because ''It's a Wonderful Life'' takes place around Christmas. If a show hasn't done a YetAnotherChristmasCarol episode yet (or if they have already done so), they'll likely be doing this one. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Usually the character learns that everyone they know would be worse off without them. The most common subversion, the BetterIfNotBornPlot, is that everybody's life is ''better''. The world is usually governed by the ButterflyOfDoom; regardless of how minor the change, there is rarely a middle ground or a world that is only slightly different, to the extent that the character's absence, no matter how seemingly insignificant or small, will result in either a complete CrapsackWorld in which there is little hope whatsoever or an {{Utopia}} where nothing bad ever happens. Also closely related to NecessaryFail. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Also, if the plot tends to have a Mr. Potter [[{{Expy}} analogue]], [[NotHisSled don't expect him to be]] a KarmaHoudini like in the original film. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | This may be a DeadHorseTrope. Nearly half the examples below are subversions of some sort, most commonly the above subversion used for parodic effect. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | A SubTrope of WholePlotReference (so anything less than the plot is merely a ShoutOut). |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Requires a RippleEffectProofMemory. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Compare WhatIf. Sister trope to YetAnotherChristmasCarol, GiftOfTheMagiPlot, ChristmasEveryDay, and HowTheCharacterStoleChristmas. Also compare JudgementOfTheDead, which may involve a similar accounting of the character's deeds, but going back to change things isn't on the table. May be related to TheFutureIsShocking, when a time traveler discovers how society has changed. Contrast SuicideForOthersHappiness. If it turns out to be AllJustADream, it's overlapping with OpinionChangingDream, and sometimes GuiltInducedNightmare. May involve a scene with a ThrivingExCrush. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RH8y0Ck1YQ Here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBv3_8sehXU here]] is a re-creation of ''It's a Wonderful Life'' using clips from TV episodes that referenced it. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant May or may not]] be related to ItsAWonderfulFailure. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | ---- |
| 32 | !!Example subpages: |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[index]] |
| 35 | * ItsAWonderfulPlot/LiveActionTV |
| 36 | * ItsAWonderfulPlot/WesternAnimation |
| 37 | [[/index]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | !!Other examples: |
| 40 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 43 | * ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' has an odd variation: during the climax of the first half, [[spoiler:Yue shows Sakura a BadPresent where she'd still exist, but it'd be as though she had never existed, not even to her closest family, just to show her what's at stake for the final judgment. Sakura sees everyone close to her (family, classmates, etc), never having felt anything for the person they cared for most. And everyone is just so casual, oblivious to having no connection with their dearest one. While vision Sakura has no conscious memory of what's going on, everything feels unnervingly wrong.]] |
| 44 | * ''{{Manga/Doraemon}}'': The episode "The Life Do-Over Machine" is about Nobita getting sent back in time threw a MentalTimeTravel machine so he can live his past as a ChildProdigy. Later one night after astounding his parents Nobita is greeted by Doraemon who shows him that even though he may exceed in the second grade but by the time he reaches his more current grade, he fails both physically and mentally. This puts his parents in the DespairEventHorizon from ruining a perfect child. |
| 45 | * ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'': The fourth novel and TheMovie, ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'', is one long ''Wonderful Life'' story for Kyon, except he didn't actually ask for it, he's not the one being retgonned, and the "angel" responsible is affected by the changes as well... It does happen around Christmas, though. |
| 46 | * ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': In "Saikoroshi-hen", Rika wakes up in a new world after a NearDeathExperience, in which none of the tragedies involving Oyashiro's curse happened. Her parents are alive, Satoko's parents are alive, Satoshi is still around, and Rena's parents never divorced. [[spoiler:However, as a result, Keiichi never came to Hinamizawa, Satoko and her other classmates bully Rika, Hanyuu is absent, and the town will soon be flooded due to the dam project never being stopped.]] |
| 47 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': The BigBad of part 6 uses this as the basis for his plan; he plans to create a world where the Joestar family never existed and Dio reigns supreme. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for Pucci, he gets killed by Emporio and Weather Report, resulting in a new timeline where he didn't exist and the Joestar family now live a happier life.]] |
| 48 | * ''Manga/KimagureOrangeRoad'': Played straight for a sequence in the final episode, where Kyousuke steps into a world where he never existed: [[spoiler: Madoka would've ''really'' been an [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer ostracized]] delinquent, Manami and Kurumi would've been total {{bratty half pint}}s, Yuusaku would've been a delinquent too [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Hikaru would be his girlfriend]]...]] |
| 49 | * ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': ''The End of Evangelion'' has a characteristically disturbing variant of such a scene filmed in live-action, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen but it was ultimately cut]] (it can still be found floating around the Internet). In it, Shinji witnesses a world in which Misato, Rei, and Asuka (who is inexplicably sleeping with ''Toji'') go about their lives without ever having known Shinji. Here they all lead bleak, aimless existences, are almost suicidally depressed, and take some time to share their incredibly cynical philosophies on life and love. Shinji eventually recognizes that this is not reality (just like the unrealistically happy high-school romance anime alternate universe of episode 26). It's not entirely clear whether the audience was meant to infer a ''Wonderful Life''-esque lesson about how their mere existence can impact the lives of those around them, Shinji seeing how the world actually would be if it was as miserable as he thinks it is just be depressed and disturbed. |
| 50 | * ''Manga/PetShopOfHorrors'': Count D shows Leon what would have happened if he, and not his [[ForgottenFriendNewFoe childhood friend]], would have grown up to become a bank robber, slowly stripping away everything that makes his life worthwhile. Spoiler: [[spoiler: The exact same thing as happened with his friend is what, granting Leon's wish of wanting to understand why his ChildhoodFriend shot himself rather than shoot Leon AND his wish to have died in his place. Count D doesn't take kindly to that kind of shit.]] |
| 51 | * ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'': The final episode shows a world in which Lain does not exist (in contrast to scenes from the first episode, before all the weirdness)... and then the viewer realizes that [[spoiler:this is not a mere possibility, but a reality Lain created by erasing herself from existence. Although she did leave her BFF Alice with a tiny figment of memory of her, only large enough to make her wonder for a second if she has seen Lain before]]. |
| 52 | [[/folder]] |
| 53 | |
| 54 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 55 | * This was done in the french comic book "Si seulement" written by Rodolphe. A writer whose name is Joe Horton finds himself in different realities after he discovered a mysterious room in his basement with five doors (one for each reality). In the first part of the scenario, he never saved his sister from an enraged dog, thus killing her and becoming a singer. As a result, his wife does not recognize him and his son does not exist. In the second part, his cowardice was worse as he never stood up for his girlfriend and failed to protect her from being bullied and raped by a group of thugs. He ended up as a cafe owner, married to an unfaithful woman who abused him with her lover. In the third part, he was incarcerated due to a fire he created at a neighbor's farm, thus killing a horse. He became a corrupt politician. It was better that the fourth part when he died while trying to save his sister, which allowed her to become a famous painter. In the final part, he was also put in jail and became a sadistic person, murdering children. He finally finds his old life back, coming to the conclusion that he has a wonderful existence. |
| 56 | * ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': J. Michael Straczynski's run, ''ComicBook/WonderWomanOdyssey'' has Wonder Woman find herself in a parallel timeline where Paradise Island was destroyed when she was a child and she was smuggled to Man's World as a baby and raised in the streets and alleys by the few surviving Amazons. Played with, as instead of just witnessing "the world without Wonder Woman", she's living it and fighting to regain her old status (thereby repairing the timeline). |
| 57 | * ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': |
| 58 | ** Creator/DonRosa did a story about Donald Duck, ''ComicBook/TheDuckWhoNeverWas'', based on this trope to celebrate his 60th birthday. Donald, who's been feeling down on his luck [[TheChewToy even for him]], spends his birthday trying to get a job at a museum; he's immediately laid off for exceeding the retirement age due to a nearsighted curator misreading his application. As he leaves, he bumps into an urn and releases the "birthday genie," a powerful spirit that [[CripplingOverspecialization grants wishes to a person if that person releases him on their birthday]]. Interestingly, the genie does not have a "one wish only limit", but Donald [[WontTakeYesForAnAnswer is so mired in his own misery he basically tunes out the genie's attempts to help him]]. Donald gets upset and wishes that he'd never been born, and the birthday genie grants his request--and Duckburg instantly transforms into [[CrapsackWorld a miserable, graffiti-riddled hellhole.]] Nearly everyone Donald knows is worse off. Because Donald didn't get [[ItMakesSenseInContext kidnapped by a talking wolf]], Gyro Gearloose accidentally blasted himself with his own intelligence-reducing ray, robbing him of his inventing skills and forcing him to become a miserable farmer. He bought said farm from Grandma Duck, who had to give up the property because Gus never came to work for her. Instead, Grandma works as Daisy's secretary; Daisy herself has become a successful romance novelist, but she only writes her books to make up for her horrible loveless life and spends all of her time shut away in Scrooge's (former) Money Bin, which she's turned into her printing plant, hating the world and drinking heavily (the latter is implied through some empty bottles she throws at Donald). Gus, meanwhile, is a skinny, broke loser living on the streets--without Donald to become Scrooge's heir, the billionaire was forced to hire Gus, who lost the legendary Number One Dime to Magica [=DeSpell=] ''on his first day on the job.'' This broke Scrooge's spirit and led him to lose everything to Flintheart Glomgold, who's slowly draining Duckburg of its resources through a combination of naturally large taxes (which the Duck family once paid) and outsourcing to Africa. The only person who's still rich and successful (much to Donald's chagrin) is the [[BornLucky impossibly lucky]] Gladstone Gander, who continues to win sweepstakes and prizes on an hourly basis--the trouble is that Huey, Dewey, and Louie had to go to live with him without Donald to care for them. As a result of Gladstone's lazy attitudes, overindulgence, and philosophy of HardWorkHardlyWorks, the boys have become massively obese couch potatoes who think that any sort of movement besides eating takes too much effort. Finally, the Beagle Boys, who lost their motivation for robbery when Scrooge went broke, have become [[DirtyCop dirty cops]] in the extreme, and one brother is even the ''mayor.'' Donald rushes back to the museum and begs for the birthday genie to reverse the spell; he does so, and the now-enlightened duck returns home to find a surprise party waiting for him. |
| 59 | ** There was [[https://inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2002-001 another Donald story]] with a similar premise, but only in the loosest of terms. For one thing, the story takes the GoodAngelBadAngel trope and exaggerates it, with the two actually being depicted as (magical?) creatures living in Donald's brain. The bad angel, fed up with how the good angel seems to always influence Donald, beats him up and ties him into a closet, then disguises himself as the good angel. What does this have to do with this trope? Well, the angels' recent conflicts inside Donald's brain have resulted in Donald demonstrating bipolar disorder-like behavior, so all his friends and family (plus Gladstone) hold a meeting which Donald eavesdrops on and thinks is about how much he sucks as a person. Furious, he wishes that he was never born, and the bad angel (disguised as the good angel) shows him what life would be like without him... and everybody's happier (i.e. Daisy is HappilyMarried to Gladstone, Huey, Dewey and Louie are in Scrooge's custody). Just as this little tour ends, the good angel breaks free, beats up the bad angel in return, and shows Donald what would ''really'' result ([[HappyMarriageCharade Daisy leads an empty life married to Gladstone]]; Gladstone thinks that Daisy is way too controlling; Scrooge is contemplating putting Huey, Dewey, and Louie in juvenile hall, etc.). And before you ask, no, this was not fanfiction. |
| 60 | ** Huey, Dewey, and Louie are preparing dinner for New Year's Eve in a geriatric care home using money provided by the Junior Woodchucks. They send Donald with the money to buy food, but he loses the purse. Donald decides Duckburg would be better off without him and seems to prepare to commit suicide, but is interrupted by his guardian angel (not the angel from the previous story, by the way). The guardian angel shows him how a new year's eve in Duckburg would be without him: Huey, Dewey, and Louie live in an orphanage, are constantly bullied by their peers, and are unable to celebrate new year's eve in peace. Daisy is dating Gladstone (again) but is unhappy with how Gladstone takes her to a horse racetrack rather than a restaurant and feels Gladstone doesn't really care about her. Scrooge has no friends or family and when he decides to invite his staff to a dinner party, he finds that none of them is willing to spend more time than necessary with him. |
| 61 | ** And another time (''Donald Duck'' comics will ruminate any trope to infinity) there was an {{inversion}} where Donald made the wish that he were alone without all his friends who were annoying him. No points for guessing he didn't like it when the wish came true, though there was more to the plot than that. |
| 62 | ** And one more: Donald gets to see what Duckburg would be with his hypothetical twin brother existing instead of him. Since the twin is [[SpaceWhaleAesop randomly]] a clichéd BigBrotherIsWatching dictator, this makes him feel better about being who he is. It's like the story changes clichés mid-swing. |
| 63 | * The ''ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse'' has ''"It's a Wonderful Christmas Story"'', which surprisingly only spends one page (of fourteen) on this trope as presented by Santa Claus. In short, Chief O'Hara had to resign after failing to capture the Blot and now directs traffic while Casey took over as the chief. Goofy has homeless because he never had a best friend to look after him. Horace went to jail after becoming involved in a pyramid scheme. Clarabelle faithfully visits him as often as she can. Minnie is in a one-off relation with Mortimer, while Morty and Ferdie spend their time at daycare when Felicity and Frank get overwhelmed. Pluto's fate is explicitly left open and a boy Mickey saved earlier in the story is now in a wheelchair. Mickey's ArchEnemy Pete is mayor of Mouseton and owns most of its business. Notwithstanding that some characters ''are'' worse off, the comic's narrative presents things bleaker than they are. Morty and Ferdie seem to have fun at the daycare, the boy's still bright in his wheelchair, and things certainly worked out for Casey. There's not even a reason given to believe Pete's still a crook. |
| 64 | * ''[[Magazine/{{MAD}} MAD Magazine]]'' is fond of this trope. They tend to favor people with political power, especially the current president of the time. |
| 65 | ** The Monroe comic had a chapter with this plot. In it, everyone is happier and better off without Monroe; even the guardian angel admits absolutely everything is better for everybody. In the end, Monroe decides to continue living, because "misery loves company." |
| 66 | ** ''MAD'' also does this for Bill Clinton, with Richard Nixon as the angel sent to him (he has a right wing but not a left one). This being Mad, it's far less heartwarming and more of a political satire than most examples (For example, when Nixon mentions the part about no one being a failure if they have friends, he mentions the quality of Clinton's friends), with Nixon's praise being backhanded at best, and suggesting some might have been better off if Clinton hadn't become President. |
| 67 | * ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': [[DoubleSubversion Double-subverted]] in the post-Zero Hour run. Brainiac 5 gets a vision of what the Legion would be like without him, and it turns out to be an idealized [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]]-style world in which the other Legionnaires are just kids in a "hero club." After confirming that, yes, their lives are in fact better without him, Brainy chooses to go back anyhow in order to go on making their lives as miserable as they make his. |
| 68 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'': One comic has Fred find that he hadn't received a Christmas bonus. Fred gets depressed about this, somehow gets even more depressed, and starts going on a walk without knowing where he's headed -- toward a tar pit. The Great Gazoo then yanks Fred out of time at the last minute and takes him to a world to show Fred what things would be like if he never existed (Fred protests along the way that he didn't wish that he was never born, Gazoo retorts saying Fred posed an interesting "what if" and didn't want to pass it up). They arrive in a world where Bedrock is a lot larger and is now known as Slaterock, Barney has an administrative position at Mr. Slate's business, and Wilma is married to Mr. Slate. Gazoo then shows that all is not as it appears to be. Slaterock grew up "too big, too fast" and crime is now way up. Betty is single and homeless because she never met Barney (because Fred introduced her to him) and Barney is quite lonely and spends his nights in the office depressed. Pebbles is a spoilt brat and Wilma is unhappy with her marriage. Gazoo then takes Fred back to his own time, where he declares that he's alive...and in pain having fallen into the tar pit. He returns home now more appreciative of his family and Mr. Slate arrives with Fred's bonus, saying his secretary forgot to put it in his pigeonhole. |
| 69 | * Issue #16 of ''Creator/CartoonNetwork Presents'' featured a ''WesternAnimation/TopCat'' story, "It's a Wonderful Strife", in which both T.C. and Officer Dibble, tired of putting up with each other, wish they'd never come to the city. The both of them are then shown alternate realities by their guardian angels, played respectively by Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss. Huck shows T.C. that, without guidance from a crafty leader, his gang has to resort to crime for sustenance, and Snagglepuss shows Dibble that if he never became a police officer, T.C. would be an anarchist bossing around the entire police force. |
| 70 | * In ''ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison'' story "Last Rites", set between ''[[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison Batman RIP]]'' and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', Bruce is given false memories of a life in which his parents weren't killed. Jim Gordon and Dick Grayson are dead. Bruce is a dilettante doctor, coddled by Martha and a disappointment to Thomas, especially when he falls for a patient who turns out to be Selina Kyle, distracting him while she robs the surgery. |
| 71 | * In another ComicBook/{{Batman}} story, "The Sacrifice", the Phantom Stranger shows Batman what it would be like if his parents didn't die. He gets the family that he's always dreamed of, but without Batman, Gotham City has fallen to ruin under the constant gang wars controlled by supervillains, Commissioner Gordon has become a bedridden quadriplegic after being tortured by one of these gangs, Ra's al Ghul has conquered much of Eastern Europe, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and Dick Grayson is on death row for the murder of Tony Zucco. |
| 72 | ** Several years prior, Creator/EdBrubaker did a similar story for ''[[ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures Batman: Gotham Adventures]]'', down to the Phantom Stranger playing Clarence. Despite being geared toward a younger age bracket, this world-without-Batman is arguably even ''bleaker''. Dick Grayson ends up working for Tony Zucco, Tim Drake works for the Joker, Harvey Dent takes payoffs from Zucco while remaining unaware of his SplitPersonality, and it all ends in Gordon's death at the hands of ComicBook/TheJoker (who strangely still exists [[InSpiteOfANail even though]] there's no Batman to punch him into that vat of chemicals). |
| 73 | * Issue #15 of ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic, ''A Trip To Simpsons Mountain,'' played with the trope without actually going through the plot; the story being about Grandpa telling the Simpsons children a story from his childhood, about how he went out to look for his father, who had gone missing -- though he proves to be a somewhat UnreliableNarrator as he tends to confuse his own life with things he'd seen on TV. Towards the end of the story, young Abe finally finds his father, standing on a bridge and crying and saying he regrets wishing he'd never been born; only to grow ecstatically happy when Abe calls him "Dad" and asks him to come home. Cue Bart, who has been listening to the story: "C'mon, Grandpa, I've seen that on TV, like, a million times!" |
| 74 | * In one issue of the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren & Stimpy]]'' comic, Ren gets fed up with Stimpy's idiocy and wishes they had never met. Jiminy Lummox offers to show Ren the life he would have had without Stimpy; In this other reality, Ren is a rich and powerful businessman without peer or equal, and Ren loves it. When Ren wishes to stay, Lummox insists that Stimpy be given his own wish in return; Stimpy just wishes Ren the best, and Ren, touched by Stimpy's kindness, admits that Stimpy is his best friend. Lummox takes this as a cue to set everything to normal, leaving Ren furious. "The heart never lies." "MINE DOES!!" |
| 75 | * Issue 13 of ''ComicBook/IHateFairyland'' starts as an OriginsEpisode for Larry, as he dreams of how he first became a guide and met Gertrude, but quickly veers into this trope as he dreams on what could have happened if she had never arrived in Fairyland. He becomes a megastar, acting as a guide to countless great child heroes, but eventually cracks under the pressure, having a public meltdown as he descends into alcoholism, which costs him his job. It ends with him as a homeless junkie who [[AteHisGun shoots himself]] to end his misery, before waking up from the dream. |
| 76 | * The miniseries ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaCorps'' has a variation of this when an initially-unidentified villain changes history so that Captain America is never rescued from the ice to join the Avengers, with his role instead being filled by the heroines Superia and Bright Star, who use their position to subtly take control with their 'Americommandos' after preventing the Avengers recruiting new members such as Hawkeye while getting rid of Thor and Iron Man and encouraging an anti-mutant attitude. When the higher-dimensional entity the Contemplator takes action to oppose this plan, he recruits five different representatives of Captain America's legacy, with one member being Steve Rogers from a point early in his career, allowing him to see the world that will result from his absence even if he doesn't know the people who have been affected by his disappearance. |
| 77 | * ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'': |
| 78 | ** Subverted in one story. An angel shows Cheryl Blossom what things would be like if she hadn't moved to Riverdale. [[BetterIfNotBornPlot It turns out that the other characters are better off without her.]] Betty becomes a supermodel dating a prince, Archie is vice-president at Lodge Industries and HappilyMarried to Veronica, who is now much less selfish and even involved in all sorts of charity work, and Jughead is the mayor. In the end, Cheryl [[ComicallyMissingThePoint misses the point and decides that making their lives more complicated is her purpose in life]], so she goes back to the life she has. And the angel gets demoted. |
| 79 | ** Another story has Veronica being given the more traditional treatment. In this alternate reality where she wasn’t born, her parents never had kids of their own, so they never saw the need to move to nice suburb-town Riverdale. Without Lodge Enterprises creating jobs with its vast variety of businesses and factories, Riverdale’s economy is awful, with everything closing down, from the movies to the mall (and it doesn’t help that compulsive shopper fashionista Veronica isn't there to spend all her hefty allowance on their merch). Without Veronica, Cheryl becomes the princess that Archie drools over, and she constantly chases Betty away from him, while Veronica often shares Archie with Betty because they’re best friends. Betty’s BFF in this universe, Midge, has to move and leave behind her friends and boyfriend because her dad got a job out of town, because of Riverdale’s poor economy, and Dilton transferred to a different school with a bigger science budget (Mr. Lodge also funded Riverdale High science lab). But the biggest change is Jughead—without Veronica around to turn him off girls, woman-hating Jug is actually a womanizer! |
| 80 | * In the 30th anniversary ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' story "Time and Time Again" by Creator/PaulCornell, the Black Guardian creates an alternate timeline where the Doctor never left Gallifrey, meaning Earth has been invaded many times by various aliens. The 7th Doctor, while travelling back through his timestream to find the means to stop this, meets the 6th Doctor who wonders whether it is worthwhile leaving Gallifrey. |
| 81 | * Issues 127 to 130 of ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' have a darker take on this sort of story. After becoming [[AGodAmI powered by the Chaos Emeralds]], [[BigBad Robotnik]] decides to demonstrate his new god-like powers by zapping Sonic into a new dimension, one where Sonic was never born. In this alternate Mobius, Emerald Hill has become a toxic wasteland, Amy and Johnny are now frightened citizens living in fear of Robotnik's omnipotent tyranny, Porker Lewis (or rather Oscar the Pig) is working for Robotnik's Death Squad as a mobster but still a coward underneath, Lord Sidewinder now rules the Special Zone with plans to [[BigBadWannabe usurp Robotnik]], the Chaotix are left as Sidewinder's janitors, and worst of all Tails is dead. The closest analogue to the GuardianAngel in this storyline is Knuckles, who Sonic requests as an ally against the god-like Robotnik, playing upon his nemesis' ego. Robotnik briefly cheats as the Knuckles of this reality is his faithful servant, but Sonic again tricks Robotnik into turning Knuckles back to normal, allowing him to use the Grey Chaos Emerald to drain Robotnik of his powers. |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 85 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Alex}}'' had "It's a Wonderful Crisis", where Alex's boss commits suicide and Alex takes over his job as head of [=MegaBank=]. Cyrus then returns as an angel to show Alex how much better everyone else would have been if he had never been born. Ultimately, Cyrus is revealed as a demon and the whole thing is a plot to send Alex and Clive to hell. |
| 86 | * An early ''ComicStrip/OverTheHedge'' arc had Verne meet an angel (4th class) "quantum mechanic" who stated that he was accidentally born some 400 years too early and his very presence in that time was causing global warming, preventing Martha Stewart from earning a Nobel Prize, and generally bringing about the apocalypse. Before having his soul put on ice Verne is allowed to say "goodbye" to RJ, and ends up shoving him out of the way of a piece of space junk thus making him a necessary part of the timeline. |
| 87 | * In ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'', a plot like this appears when a well-meaning but somewhat naive angel (who is naturally named Clarence) [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2009-08-11 attempts to save Nodwick from his henchman existence by offering to take his soul for good]], and tries to convince Nodwick by showing what would happen if he were to die for good. BadFuture ensues. He then attempts to invoke this trope by replacing members of the party one by one to find a better AlternateUniverse for Nodwick (replacing Nodwick put another henchman in an even worse stew than Nodwick, since he was taller and therefore a better HumanShield, replacing Yeagar put an Ogre in the party who ate Nodwick on a regular basis, and Arthax was replaced with a necromancer, who heavily reduced Nodwick's death count [[TheUndead with some unfortunate implications]]). The angel is eventually forced to acknowledge that Nodwick is a CosmicPlaything designated to [[ButtMonkey deflect misery from everyone else around him]], and leaves things as they were. |
| 88 | [[/folder]] |
| 89 | |
| 90 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 91 | * The ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8235065/1/The_Greatest_Gift_of_the_Heart The Greatest Gift of the Heart]]'' picks up from the Bad End of Hanako's route, and shows what would've happened if Hisao had never had his heart attack and ended up at Yamaku. In this fic, he befriended the other girls and Kenji, and without him, they end up lonely, miserable, and plagued by their personal problems, while Hanako [[spoiler:committed suicide]]. |
| 92 | * The ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'' fic "[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4926714/1/The-Turtle-Who-Never-Was The Turtle Who Never Was]]" puts Michelangelo through the Wonderful Life plot, courtesy of two spirits ([[AFormYouAreComfortableWith taking on the forms of Splinter and Shredder]]) who argue whether Mike's made a positive difference on the lives of everyone around him or not, and consequently take him on a trip to an alternate reality where he'd never been born in order to find out. Although Michaelangelo initially feels like he really just made his brothers' lives harder, as the new reality deplicts Donatello being even more brilliant and Raphael more focused now that Splinter could spend more time helping them deal with their respective issues without having to also train Mikey, Mikey learns that a hero he saved during his time as 'Turtle Titan' now retired after the brainwashing was broken because he was ashamed of the innocent people he killed, and also witnesses the death of his pet cat Klunk as Mikey wasn't there to adopt him. When Michaelangelo returns to his reality and tells the real Splinter about the experience, Splinter also notes that, while his brothers were more successful without Mikey in this other reality, they were more successful ''as individuals'', the rat encouraging his son to consider whether the turtles would be happier as individual successes or as one family. |
| 93 | * ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' |
| 94 | ** "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2703105/1/It-s-a-Ronderful-Life It's a Ronderful Life]]" sees Ron wish he'd never been born because he feels that he's screwed up Kim's life after a company sued him and Kim for the destruction of a space shuttle during a recent mission, forcing Kim to take on more talk show appearances and accept demeaning jobs like modelling for Smarty Mart to pay the fees. However, Ron's 'guardian angel' reveals that, despite Ron's concerns, he has made Kim's life better; without Ron to keep her grounded, Kim became particularly arrogant about her abilities, provoking her enemies even further until Drakken and Shego defeated her during the events of "Bueno Nacho", with Drakken subsequently lobotomising her father & uncle and stripping her mother of her medical licence, leaving Kim emotionally and psychologically shattered and having to work at Smarty Mart just to pay the bills. On a wider note, Ron's parents are divorced, Rufus is owned by Ron's would-be cousin Shawn, Bueno Nacho collapsed without the income generated by the creation of the Naco, Timothy North (the Fearless Ferret) is living on the streets as he suffered a mental collapse without Ron's help, Bonnie has become fat after she developed an eating disorder after Brick Flagg became one of Drakken's mind-controlled soldiers, Wade designs equipment for Drakken while under a mind-control chip, Felix's chair was taken to reverse-engineer the systems and he struggles to get by even with Monique's help, Joss was taken for reeducation under Shego, and the Yamanuchi School has been turned into monkeys under the control of Monkey Fist. |
| 95 | ** "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5538382/1/It-s-a-Wonderful-Christmas-Carol It's a Wonderful Christmas Carol]]" starts after Kim and Ron have had an argument on Christmas, Kim feeling frustrated with Ron and Ron wishing he was never born. While Kim [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol witnesses her past, present and future]], Ron is guided through the world without him by an angel resembling Mr Barkin. In Ron's absence, while Kim still became her heroic self, Drakken and Shego ultimately won during the Diablos plot as Kim's spirit was effectively broken by the lie of Eric, culminating in her being one of the mass casualties when Drakken and Shego forced the human race to defend them against the Lorwardians. |
| 96 | * In the ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3311845/1/Its_a_Wonderfully_Splendid_Magnificent_Life It's a Wonderfully Splendid Magnificent Life]]'', Tamaki, with his mother ill and [[EvilMatriarch his grandmother preventing him from seeing her]], wishes he'd never left France. Kotoko grants him this wish and lets him see what would have become of the rest of the club had he not left France, which causes him to reconsider, especially when he realizes that not even he and his mother are happy there. |
| 97 | * In chapter 14 of the ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' fic ''Fanfic/TwistOfFate'', Kuroko (who hates Touma) and Awaki accidentally wind up in a world where Touma had never been born (they were both in the middle of teleporting, causing them to be unaffected when Touma got {{Ret Gone}}d). They are guided by a mysterious man named Moses who is unaffected by changes in the timeline. Without Touma, this is a CrapsackWorld to the extreme. Academy City is a military state, WorldWarIII raged, and practically everybody Touma helped is dead, insane, etc. When they manage to restore the timeline, Kuroko finally lets go of her grudge, noting how important he is and how much she and her friends owe him. |
| 98 | * The ''{{Manga/Saki}}'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9914485/1/A-Wonderful-Life A Wonderful Life]]'', has Yumi doing this the night of her and her teammates' defeat in the individuals; when she [[MomentOfWeakness wonders whether she would have done better had she gone to a different school]]. Nodocchi shows Yumi a future in which she wins the tournament for Kazekoshi, at the cost of Tsuruga being unable to even enter, and Momo resigned to being isolated and invisible. Unlike most examples, however, Nodocchi reveals that she can't offer Yumi the possibility of accepting the alternate future (although Yumi would have said "no"), and Yumi wonders if it was AllJustADream. |
| 99 | * The ''[[Franchise/TheSmurfs Smurfs]]'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2285069/1/It-s-A-Wonderful-Smurf It's A Wonderful Smurf]]'' and its sequel ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2546255/1/A-World-Without-Gargamel A World Without Gargamel]]'' have an imp named Mandrake the Mischievous who loves to make other people miserable, and who gives the ''It's A Wonderful Life'' treatment to Brainy (with Clumsy tagging along for the ride) in the first story and Gargamel in the second. In both cases, his main goal is to prove that his target has led a worthless life... but things don't develop as he'd planned. |
| 100 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' unfinished fanfic called “Life Without A Sponge”, Spongebob accidentally ruins a party for the Krusty Krab and blames himself even though his friends tell him it’s OK. But Spongebob thinks that his friends would be better off if he haven’t been there at all. Soon, God shows up and shows Spongebob what life would be like if he wasn’t born. Patrick has no friends, Mr. Krabs is homeless, Gary is a cannibal, Sandy’s trapped, Plankton finally got his hands on the Krabby Patty secret formula, and Squidward is dead. |
| 101 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfics: |
| 102 | ** In "[[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wmPVTzeT5CIUz_u-CNkMN7CcbFBXGG877UGY8lJmb40/edit A Hearth's Warming Carol]]", Rainbow Dash wishes that she was never born after she gets all of her friends upset with her. Princess Celestia then appears and uses her magic to show Rainbow Dash what Equestria would be like without her. In this alternate universe, Rainbow Dash sees that her friends' lives are different due to her not being there to perform her first sonic rainboom from the episode "The Cutie Mark Chronicles," that helped her friends discover their hidden talents. Rarity is a jewel thief, Applejack is a cold-hearted business-pony, Pinkie Pie is a depressed rock seller, Twilight lives all by herself in a cottage in the mountains where she studies magic day and night, and Fluttershy is dead. |
| 103 | ** In another fanfic called ''It's a Twilightful Life'' ([[https://www.deviantart.com/powerpup97/art/Its-a-Twilightful-Life-Part-1-816701409 link to chapter 1]]), Twilight Sparkle wishes she was never born after she and her friends fail to save the School of Friendship on Christmas Eve from its debt. Princess Luna plays the role of the guardian angel who shows her what Equestria would be like if she was never born. In this alternate universe, Granny Smith and Big Macintosh are over-the-top hillbillies, the Cutie Mark Crusaders never got their cutie marks and are selling fried chicken for a living, Starlight Glimmer is rampaging throughout Equestria making more ponies equal, Rainbow Dash is a lesbian artist, Pinkie Pie is a homicidal cannibal, Rarity is obsessed with sweets (especially marshmallows), Fluttershy is a hippy, Applejack is working with the Flim Flam Brothers at Las Pegasus, Spike is a pick-pocket, and Princess Celestia is... well, let’s just say she's a total mess. |
| 104 | ** In a fanfic called ''Fanfic/SunsetsWonderfulLife'', Sunset wishes she was never born after a disastrous Christmas party. A guardian angel named Rebecca shows what would happen without Sunset. Here in the human world, Rainbow Dash is stuck as Lightning Dust's water girl and a coward loyal to herself, Rarity is a homeless and poor CrazyCatLady failing to sell poorly made dresses and refuses to give them to those who can't make her large prices, Fluttershy is a criminal gang leader, Pinkie Pie is gloomy and sad, Applejack and Big Mac are forced to work for Flim and Flam and adapt to their dishonest ways in selling their products after they buy out their farm (due to debt) and use paying Granny Smith's hospital bills as leverage, Apple Bloom was transferred to Applesoona just to have some form of education, Derpy is a bully, Trixie is a timid ShrinkingViolet, morale at Canterlot High School worsened to the point where after the latest Friendship Games Cinch persuaded Principal Celestia into partnership to improve the school which soon led to her persuading her and Luna to retire early so that she can take full control of the school and transform it into another Crystal Prep division with the same toxic environment, Dean Cadance was fired after Cinch manipulated the school board into firing her, Camp Everfree was shut down due to debt and turned into a spa by Filthy Rich, the Dazzlings have taken over the world, Spike was euthanized after biting a student bullying Sci-Twi, and Sci-Twi is suicidal after dealing with everyone treating her like an outcast for the Friendship Games (as well as Dean Cadance's firing and Spike being put to sleep). It's even worse in Equestria where Princess Twilight turned evil instead of Sunset due to Princess Celestia repeating the same mistakes which causes her to turn into Midnight Sparkle and kill everybody and everything there and is currently at war with the Dazzlings to take over the human world. |
| 105 | ** In the ''Fanfic/AWorldWithoutRainbows'', Twilight finds herself sent to another world where the Rainboom never happened. Because Mane 6 never become friends, they weren’t there to stop Nightmare Moon. |
| 106 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' fanfic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6133694/1/Without-You Without You]]", Helga feels that everyone would be better off without her and wishes she was never born, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor which unfortunately comes true]]. Here she not only learns what has become of her family and friends without her presence, she also must find a way to return to her universe and fix what's gone wrong because of her wish as well. |
| 107 | * In the ''Literature/LesMiserables'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9018525/1/It-s-a-Wonderfu-Life-Javert It's a Wonderful Life, Javert]]'', Clarence appears to Javert at Pont Au Change and shows him how different the story would have been without him: Had Javert not been a guard in Toulon during Valjean's incarceration, he would have succeeded in one of his escape attempts and thus would have never met the Bishop of Digne and turned his life around - instead, he turns to crime, is summarily arrested and sentenced for life. Because of this, Valjean never becomes Monsieur Madeleine, and M-sur-M declines into a decrepit cesspit with corruption and misery and prostitutes marking every alley. Among them is Fantine, who gets arrested and released after her brawl, but now with a bad reputation to go with her name - she dies of consumption soon after and her corpse is robbed and left forgotten. Without Fantine to provide for Cosette and Valjean to save her, the Thenardiers throw her out and she freezes to death. And lastly, without Javert volunteering to spy on the students, the barricade falls earlier and the students are exiled instead of executed, which only leads to another, bloodier attempt some years later. However, this does nothing to dissuade Javert from jumping into the Seine, since it does not solve his moral dilemma - he is only convinced to live when Clarence shows him the future where Valjean dies, and Javert chooses to live to prevent Valjean's unjust death. |
| 108 | * "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10024916/1/Superior-Spider-Man-Take-2 Superior Spider-Man: Take Two]]" is a ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' fanfic that essentially answers the question, "ComicBook/WhatIf Peter Parker was able to get his body back from Doctor Octopus at the end of 'Dying Wish'?" Before dying, Otto begs Peter, "Don't throw your life away the way I did mine," prompting Peter to start making changes in his life. The following story follows the plot beats of ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'', only with Peter as Spider-Man instead of Otto. At one point, after accidentally causing the death of the criminal Massacre and later being goaded into brutally attacking Jester and Screwball, Peter chose to take a leave of absence from being Spider-Man in order to get his head on straight. At one point, a small portion of Otto that was still inside Peter's mind visited him in a dream, giving him a vision of what would have happened if Peter was never bitten by the radioactive spider; he wound up working for Oscorp, until being callously fired by [[BadBoss Norman Osborn]]. In his quest for retaliation against Osborn, he would end up becoming an alternate version of the Green Goblin. After this dream, Peter resumed his life as Spider-Man, his sense of purpose restored. |
| 109 | * "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5566684/1/Your-Life-is-Wonderful-Charlie-Brown Your Life is Wonderful, Charlie Brown]]" is a ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' fanfic where resident ButtMonkey Charlie Brown, feeling more distraught than ever during the holidays, is shown what great impact he has made on his friends' lives. [[spoiler:Some of the things shown without his intervention are Linus being a ShrinkingViolet, Pigpen being an overdressed JerkAss, among many other alterations]]. |
| 110 | * The ''Franchise/{{Arrowverse}}'' fic "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/43656942 The Little Bird that Kept so Many Warm]]" sees Oliver and Laurel (mid-Season Two) be sent to a world where Laurel was never born by the Phantom Stranger. As a result of Laurel's non-existence, Oliver committed suicide during his years away as he had nothing to hold on to, Sara is in a coma in the ICU because she was given so much freedom that she had a drug-induced accident, Tommy was so wild without Laurel's calming influence that Malcolm sent him to military school and he died in war, Helena provoked a mob war (and died in the subsequent crossfire), and Malcolm's plan to destroy the Glades was a success after Moira committed suicide, driving Quentin on to the street and leaving Thea in jail on drug charges. |
| 111 | * The ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' fanfic ''[[http://yakkingyakko.deviantart.com/art/It-s-A-Warnerful-Life-63087697 It's A Warnerful Life]]'' double-subverts this. At first, it appears that everyone is better off without Yakko, but it turns out that that couldn't be further from the truth - without "major patients" like the Warners to keep him busy, Dr. Scratchansniff is fired; Mr. Plotz is happy - too happy, to the point where he gladly signs away millions of dollars to shady businessmen; with no Warner Brothers to lust after her, Hello Nurse feels as though she isn't pretty enough, so she lets herself go; the other toons like Slappy Squirrel and Pinky and The Brain were not hired for the show because Yakko wasn't around to recommend them; and without a big brother, Dot and Wakko were easily caught and kicked out of the Studio - not only are they homeless, it's actually stated that they're going to die. |
| 112 | * The ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6585093/1/Zuzu-s-Petals Zuzu's Petals]]'' features Number 362 feeling frustrated about TheChainsOfCommanding, and that because of her feelings of being unable to do normal kid stuff, she wishes she was never Supreme Leader. In a neat twist on the concept though, the story is more about Rachel deciding what she values most: being a kid or growing in her own life choices. For example, the KND never collapsed without her, her brother never became [[HatesBeingTouched touch sensitive]], Tommy never had to quit the KND, and Rachel herself gets to stay with her original squad. However, Tommy is still selfish and entitled without learning selflessness to sacrifice himself for the organization. Also, Number 1 took over after Chad and thus couldn't go looking for Number 0 during the grandfather crisis. This meant Nigel died killing Grandfather by [[HurlItIntoTheSun tricking him onto the moonbase and then detaching it to the sun]], and following this, Sector V broke up. |
| 113 | * The ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3571753/1/The-World-As-We-Knew-It The World As We Knew It]]" has a variation of this starting after Dumbledore's funeral, when Harry, Lupin [[spoiler:and Snape]] trigger an ancient magic known as an 'Aperio', where three people separately make the same wish at the same time and are transferred into a world where that wish is reality. In this case, the three find themselves in a world where the prophecy was never made and James and Lily Potter are still alive, but Dumbledore was killed by Voldemort years ago and Lucius Malfoy is now the Minister of Magic. As a result, the Hogwarts curriculum is now basically rigged to make sure pure-bloods achieve the best scores while muggle-borns are so prejudiced against that Lily is only able to remain in England because James altered official records to give the impression that she has pure-blood heritage (Hermione [[spoiler:is found living in France because she was discovered and rescued just in time]]). On a more personal level, Peter Pettigrew's true allegiance is still unknown to the remaining Order members, Ron is Harry's school rival due to various past pranks, and Ginny has spent the last four years in Azkaban for opening the Chamber of Secrets. |
| 114 | * The ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11600833/1/Beauty-of-Our-Reality Beauty of Our Reality]]" has a take on this where an alternate visits the canon universe; in a world where she never started digging into Senator Bracken, Joanna Beckett wonders what would have changed if she’d taken the case while holding the same Mayan artefact that showed Castle another universe in the past, which leads to her appearing in the office of Castle’s private investigator business. Her time in this world is brief, mainly consisting of Castle explaining how things turned out here as he drives Joanna back to his apartment, but it leads to a genuinely moving moment when Joanna meets her alternate daughter, and the usually tough Kate Beckett is reduced to just saying ‘Mommy?’ before the two exchange a tearful hug. |
| 115 | * The ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8812894/1/It-s-a-Wonderful-Jori It's a Wonderful Jori]]" sees Jade get her wish that she never met Tori... only to find herself in a reality where she's been kicked out of her home and Hollywood Arts because Tori was never there to stick up for her with the others when Jade went too far. |
| 116 | * ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles''; |
| 117 | ** "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9858897/1/Thanks-For-the-Wings Thanks for the Wings]]'' opens with Maura Isles, feeling unappreciated by her friends and family after donating a kidney to her half-sister, is treated with a view of the world where she was never born. On a wider scale, several of the charities she supported have raised far less support now that Maura didn't help attract attention to their cause, and her adopted parents' lives are fundamentally emptier without her presence. On a more personal level, Frost and Korsak are simply colleagues as Frost never got over his issues with dead bodies without Maura's help while Korsak has health problems now that Maura was never there to subtly inspire him to make better dietary choices, and Susie Chang's confidence in her abilities is constantly undermined by Maura's 'replacement,' the competent but ruthless Doctor Potter. As for the Rizzoli family, Angela Rizzoli is a bitter woman living in a poor apartment without Maura able to offer Angela use of her guesthouse, Tommy Rizzoli is in jail as Jane was never inspired by Maura to find the evidence that would clear him of the bank robbery (as depicted in "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"), and the Rizzolis have a poor reputation in the department after the Boston Marathon shootings led to a riot with Frankie being made the scapegoat for subsequent events (whereas Jane ran with Maura and caught the killer in "Born to Run"). On top of that, Frankie was killed during a raid on the police station without Maura there to save him (as shown in "When the Gun Goes Bang, Bang, Bang"), and Jane is unhappily married to Casey Jones, her confidence shattered when Hoyt took her hostage and she had to be saved by Casey (as opposed to "Remember Me", where Maura was taken hostage with Jane and thus gave her friend someone to save), Jane feeling that she will never grow beyond her current limits even if she leaves Casey. |
| 118 | ** "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27931336/ It's a Wonderful Life]]" has Jane's guardian angel being George Bailey from the original ''Wonderful Life'', now a second-class angel himself after he died in 1997. With Jane and Maura distant after Jane shot Paddy Doyle, George shows Jane what life would be like if she was never born; her parents are in an unhappy marriage because they have nobody else after Frankie moved away with a woman who ''claimed'' he was the father of her child and Tommy was sent to prison without Jane and Maura to help him, Frost died in the siege of the station without Jane to help end the stand-off, and Korsak has no real friends at the precinct (to be clear, he's ''liked'', but nobody spends time with him socially). As for Maura's fate, she is on the verge of resigning after her relationship with Paddy Doyle was exposed and compromised everyone's faith in her- while she had nothing to do with his criminal activities, nobody knows her well enough to say that for a fact- and George mentions that when she leaves Boston Maura will be forced to relocate to Africa and do her best to offer medical care in third world countries even after being stripped of her medical license. |
| 119 | * The ''Franchise/HowToTrainYourDragon'' one-shot ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12022935/1/Without-the-Dragon-Dork Without the Dragon Dork]]'' sees all of the other Dragon Riders wonder what their lives would have been like if Hiccup hadn’t been born (an interesting variation on this trope where normally the missing person sees the impact of his absence directly, as Hiccup is never told what they were thinking about). Without Hiccup, Fishlegs is a complete social outcast as nobody could put up with his nerdy knowledge of dragons or give Heather a chance to stay; Snotlout is under considerable stress trying to deal with his father’s ambitions for him to be Berk’s next chief; Tuffnut is treated as a prankster and nothing else as nobody will take him seriously even when he genuinely wants to help; Ruffnut is unable to express her deeper feelings and feels that she is regarded as only Tuffnut's sister; and Astrid has nothing but her training and reputation as a warrior (and even that’s tainted when she froze while facing the Flightmare and nobody helped her work out how the dragon made her do that). |
| 120 | * The ''Series/{{Bones}}'' fanfic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6568121/1/Every-Time-A-Bell-Rings Every Time a Bell Rings]]" gives Doctor Temperance Brennan a chance to witness a world like this while she's feeling unappreciated during Booth's relationship with Hannah. While Camille Saroyan and Lance Sweets are still alive, they are fundamentally depressed and alone as Cam never moved away from New York and Sweets never bonded with anyone in Washington, while Cam's would-be adopted daughter Michelle is now stuck in an abusive foster home as she drove Cam away during the investigation of her father's murder without Brennan's encouragement to convince Cam to try again. As for the rest of the team, Jack Hodgins was killed by the Gravedigger, Angela is a penniless artist forced to prostitute herself to pay her rent, and Brennan's father and brother are still on the run, with her brother unaware that his youngest would-be step-daughter died of cystic fibrosis years ago because he doesn't dare get back in touch and Brennan was never there to give the little girl better medical care (no reference is made to what happened to any of Brennan's interns without her role in their lives). Worst of all for Brennan, the would-be love of her life, Seeley Booth, is trapped in a thankless relationship with his old partner Tessa, the two only staying together because of their daughter Joy, while Booth's life falls apart due to him succumbing to his old gambling addiction, and Brennan's glimpse of this other world ends with Booth being killed when he tries to go after a wanted criminal on Christmas and gets shot. |
| 121 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}''; |
| 122 | ** "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2159471/1/It-s-A-Mondler-Life It's a Mondler Life]]" looks at Monica, feeling depressed and unappreciated, when she is visited by a spirit who shows her a world where she was never born. As a result, Ross is still his excessively geeky self and living with his parents without Monica to inspire his personal development so that he could marry Carol in the first place, as well as Rachel and Chandler never learning to appreciate his better qualities; Rachel is on the verge of divorcing Barry after an unhappy marriage as she had nowhere to go when she had doubts about the wedding; Chandler is stuck in a miserable marriage to Janice and his friendship with Joey the only reason he hasn't killed himself; and Phoebe fell into a career as a prostitute and drug-addicted porn star without Monica's help, which culminates in Phoebe committing suicide. |
| 123 | ** "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14291455/1/It-s-a-Wonderful-Life-Friends It's a Wonderful Life Friends]]" makes Chandler the subject of the vision, with the following consequences; Ross is still his excessively geeky self because Chandler didn't encourage his personal development and lives with his parents, Rachel is in an unhappy marriage to Barry without Chandler to inspire her to try for her dream job, Joey is a homeless drug addict because Chandler wasn't there to support him, Phoebe committed suicide years ago, and Monica is a fat librarian because Chandler wasn't there to inspire her passion for cooking or to lose weight. |
| 124 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''; |
| 125 | ** "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4198122/1/A-Reversal-of-Fortune A Reversal of Fortune]]", it is all-but-explicitly stated that the fic depicts Ned Flanders witnessing a vision of a world where Maude never died; due to a moment of carelessness on Ned's part, the Flanders and the Simpsons never visit the race track where Maude died, but Marge dies in a car accident. As a result, Lisa quits most of her extracurricular activities because she is caught up in her grief, Bart is shown losing his temper and lashing out at the bullies who caused Marge's accident, and Homer is contemplating suicide as he cannot live without Marge. The fic concludes with Ned returning to the world in canon, reflecting that, as much as he misses Maude, it is clear that he is better suited to coping with life without Maude than Homer and the Simpsons would be able to cope without Marge. |
| 126 | ** "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14224986/1/A-World-Without-Bart A World Without Bart]]" has a variation, in which after a bad day, Bart wishes he never existed. A spirit shows him a world where he never was born. In it, Homer and Marge only had Lisa, divorced and Homer became a bachelor who still misses Marge. Marge focused on her career, married Lenny and neglected Lisa who acted like a jerk. As Bart never was here for Milhouse, Milhouse committed suicide and Krusty the Clown never was on the show again as Sideshow Bob successfully framed him. Skinner eventually left his job, leading Chalmers to replace him. Oh, and not to mention that without Bart, Carl never reconciled with his parents, Barney, Moe and Abe were dead (Barney drank himself to death and Moe committed suicide as the bar wasn't profitable without regular customers) and Flanders joined a cult. |
| 127 | * This storyline plays a part in Chapter 14 of the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fanfic ''[[Fanfic/TaarokosBuffyTheVampireSlayer Season 9]]'', set in a world where Buffy and Angel got back together after Angel regained his humanity following the final battle of "Not Fade Away". At Christmas that year, Xander Harris is left feeling depressed about the current state of his life, pondering if he is really needed anymore as he witnesses the rest of the gang bonding so well without really registering his presence, prompting the spirit of his long-dead friend Jesse to appear to him and show him a world where he was never born. While Sunnydale still exists as the First Evil never had the opportunity to mount the large-scale attack against the Slayer line, this is because Buffy died for good when confronting the Master (although he was staked by Angel shortly afterwards), and since then, every subsequent Slayer has only lasted for a year before being killed in the line of duty, with current Slayer Renee- who is Xander's girlfriend in the 'real' world at this time- noting that Sunnydale is now regarded as the Slayers' graveyard. As well as these dead Slayers, Willow has been turned into a vampire by Spike, Cordelia died when she attended the demonic frat party, Drusilla was killed by Kendra before Spike killed Kendra in revenge, Jenny Calendar died in a car accident during the cursed candy incident, several students were poisoned by the bitter cafeteria worker, and Slayers are still only one at a time, as well as Angel remaining in Sunnydale with Giles and Oz rather than relocating to Los Angeles. |
| 128 | * The ''[[Literature/TheWorstWitch Worst Witch]]'' fanfic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12873600/6/The-Worst-Witch-2017-Actions-have-Consequences Actions have Consequences]]" has a variation of this for Ethel; feeling that Mildred is replacing her in Esmerelda's affections, she wishes that Mildred had never come to Cackle's, and finds herself in a world where she, Sybil, and Maud are attending a different school, but Esmerelda and the teachers at Cackle's are dead, Enid only attended Cackle's briefly, and nobody has heard of Mildred. After spending a few weeks in this world, Ethel learns from the spirit that granted her wish that, in this timeline, she was briefly Head of Year upon arrival only to be 'demoted' when her actions led to Enid's expulsion a few weeks into her time at Cackle's, and Esmerelda, Miss Cackle, the Great Wizard, and most of the teachers died when the academy was destroyed by Agatha when Ethel helped Agatha to attack the school. Ethel is [[EvenEvilHasStandards horrified when she learns that the divergent moment is when Julie Hubble was struck by a car while pregnant with Mildred]], killing Julie and her unborn daughter to erase Mildred's impact on Ethel's life. |
| 129 | * ''Fanfic/PokemonXNimjaPlayTheGame'': |
| 130 | ** ''Now I'm (Not) Here'' (Chapter 22) has Aegis take Nimja to a world in which he was never born after multiple accusations are made against him that he is, essentially, ''a rapist and a pedophile'' due to his CasualKink. While Nimja, being Nimja, doesn't get depressed or upset by these accusations, it does leave him wondering what would happen had he never existed. The results are ''devastating.'' [[spoiler: [=OGiNiM=], with no one to relax him, graduates from college with a degree in creative writing, but becomes a drab, harsh, not at all cheerful man who has practically given up on life. [=HyDrO=] has been DrivenToSuicide, because as a result of Nimja not existing, she never met [=OGiNiM=] and never fell in love with him. Slang is a die-hard paranoic and panphobic who fears ''everything,'' but instead of doing so in his usual ShrinkingViolet way, he is a cynic. Nimja, Inc., obviously, does not exist. [=HyPN0se=] has ''also'' been DrivenToSuicide, and while this is DramaticIrony as the audience knows that [=HyPN0se=] has crumbled under the whim of his abusive mother, Nimja is simply saddened that he's dead. As for the Spoken, they are still hidden, as Nimja never found them- but now they're also extremely lonely. Crowe in particular has given up his love for puns entirely, with no one to share them with.]] |
| 131 | ** And that's just the main cast. [[spoiler: Nimja's ''other,'' RealLife fans are affected as well. Many of them have committed suicide or have become extremely worried about everything. Oh, and not to mention: everyone's human. Except for Nimja and the Spoken. Nimja is naturally so devastated about this that he immediately begs Aegis to send him back to his regular universe.]] The entire episode was made to thank Nimja for everything he has done for the [[FanCommunityNickname Gamers]], and the last words we see in the episode, as opposed to the usual "''RECORDING END: WAKE,''" are the following: |
| 132 | --->'''[[spoiler:TO NIMJA:\ |
| 133 | THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE FOR US IN OUR LIVES.\ |
| 134 | WE WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU.\ |
| 135 | YOU ARE NOT A RAPIST.\ |
| 136 | YOU ARE NOT A PEDOPHILE.\ |
| 137 | YOU ARE OUR FRIEND.\ |
| 138 | FROM ALL OF US TO YOU: DANKJEWEL.\ |
| 139 | * insert the names of all of Nimja's fans here*]] |
| 140 | * An ''Series/{{ER}}'' fanfic centered around the reviled Kerry Weaver had her wishing she'd never come to work at County. Sure enough, her guardian angel showed her how bad things would have been otherwise. |
| 141 | ** In another, ''Dreams That You Dare To Dream'', five characters--Doug/Carol/Kerry/Elizabeth/Carte leap into multiple alternate universes. While most are fantastical, a few are in a world where some of the show's major or minor plot twists either did or didn't take place--Carol dying from her suicide attempt, Carter marrying Abby Keaton, etc. |
| 142 | * The ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' fic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3203065/1/Angie-s-Wonderful-Life Angie's Wonderful Life]] revolves around Angelica wishing she was never born after accidentally getting Chuckie hit by a car and consequently overhearing her parents [[ParentsAsPeople contemplating if they've raised her right]]. With her guardian [[ADogNamedDog Angel]], it's revealed that without Angelica to keep order, Harold's such an ExtremeDoormat that everyone in their daycare is happy to push him around (since Angelica wasn't around to protect/boss him around), Tommy is no longer friends with Phil or Lil and never developed the brotherly relationship he had with Dil, and Susie has to expand her efforts on making sure they don't fight with each other (preventing her from protecting Harold in the daycare). The babies' parents aren't happy either: Angelica's parents have divorced due to both being too busy with work and not having anyone to keep them together, Stu's given up inventing and thus the babies (and Chuckie's dad) never went to [[WesternAnimation/RugratsInParis Euro-Reptarland]] and thus never met Kimi or Kira, the latter two being split apart after Kira ends up getting framed for theft by Coco [=LaBouche=], ironically the only character to benefit from Angelica's absence. The inciting factor for all of this? As Angelica never took Spike to find the babies in ''WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie'', their absence meant Tommy and Chuckie got badly injured by the monkeys in the forest, which in turn resulted in [[spoiler:Chuckie's death when the wolf attacked.]] |
| 143 | * ''Fanfic/{{Quizzical}}'': ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/234899/wonderful Wonderful]]'', as said in its long description: |
| 144 | --> During a very bad week Quizzical Greystone comes to believe her whole life has been a failure. Three strange mares travel a long way, just to show her that she's wrong. |
| 145 | * A variation in ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/WhatYouWishFor''. Lori wishes that she only had nine sisters and no brothers. This results in her finding out that Lincoln isn't around, but then it turns out that he is Carol's brother instead of hers. Because Lori met Bobby at the mall while shopping for Lincoln, this means that Lori and Bobby would never have dated (although they'd have still met, since they go to the same school) and Bobby would have been dating Carol instead. [[spoiler:The whole ordeal turns out to be a coma dream.]] |
| 146 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3903345/1/It-s-A-Wonderful-Life-Harry-Potter It's a Wonderful Life, Harry Potter]]'' Harry wishes he'd never been born after Ron dies during the [[SoulJar Horcrux]] hunt. Tonks uses an unspecified spell to show that without him, Voldemort would've been ruling the wizarding world and most of the people he knows would be dead, including Ron. |
| 147 | * One chapter in ''Love is a Mystery,'' in the ''Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook'' series, is this trope with a light sprinkle of YetAnotherChristmasCarol. Cullen [[AllJustADream has a nightmare]] in which he never accepts the invitation to teach at the school, and Solas is the guardian spirit who shows him what life there would be like without him and what his future will be if he doesn't go. This chapter is also to show him that his actions throughout the series, specifically his actions back at the first installment, made a marked difference to various characters as part of Solas' YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech to Cullen. |
| 148 | * One chapter in the ''Manga/FairyTail'' fanfiction ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10264509/521/Tales-of-Fairies Tales of Fairies]]'' has Lucy (who herself is happy with her life as a mage) being tricked by a gypsy to alter history so that she never went to Hargeon and meet Natsu and Happy. The results are devastating, to say the least, as Lucy ends up captured by Phantom Lord and ends up in her father's hand, who hands her to a duke in a marriage that soon turns abusive. Meanwhile, Natsu is kept from returning from the guild by Bora and his sex slave, meaning when he and Happy return Macao was killed by the Vulcans and Romeo left since no one went to help his father. Without Lucy and thus Virgo, Erza, Gray, and Natsu couldn't stop Erigor from using Lullaby on the Guild Master meeting, killing Makarov and putting Fairy Tail in a civil war for who the next guild master would be, ending with Laxus destroying Magnolia with the Thunder Palace and leading the Magic Council to arrest him and disband Fairy Tail. And throughout the process, Erza, Loke, Wendy, Cana, and all of Edolas die without the heroes to intervene. [[HopeSpot Seven years later, Natsu and Happy run into Lucy, who managed to escape her husband]]. However, the duke had tricked the royal family of Fiore into thinking that Natsu kidnapped Lucy, and by the time Lucy had persuaded the Royal Family of the truth she had agreed to open the Eclipse Gate to kill Zeref, which leads to the dragons being unleashed. The Magic Council, in desperation, uses Face to destroy all magic to stop them, which breaks the seal on the Book of E.N.D. and turns Natsu into his Etherious Form. The last moments of this timeline show E.N.D. and his Etherious ruling over what's left of the world. |
| 149 | * Chapter 13 of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13646760/13/The-NEW-151-Pokeshipping-Stories The NEW 151 Pokeshipping Stories]]'' is centered around this plot. After an argument with Ash, Misty wishes that the two of them had never met, leading to [[OlympusMons Mew]] showing her what the world would be like. Ash is married to Serena, who's such a clingy ControlFreak that she forced him to sever ties with all his Pokémon and he eventually commits suicide because of her abuse; Alola's been ravaged by the Ultra Beasts because Ash was never there to help fight them off; Tracey is a homeless alcoholic who rants about how terrible Pokémon are; Brock's heart is as hard as the Pokémon he trained because he never reconciled with his parents; Togepi died after hatching; and Misty herself had to turn to stripping to support herself after the Cerulean Gym was shut down due to her sister's incompetence. It's lampshaded by Ash at the end of the story, with him pointing out that the situation Misty's describing sounds like a film they show every December. It's also implied that Mew exaggerated some (if not all) of it, since Ash and Misty wonder why the kindhearted Serena was portrayed the way she was in the vision. |
| 150 | * Taking place in the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' fanfic chapter "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13376298/6/Steven-Universe-Adventures-of-the-Gems-3 It's a Wonderful Universe]]", Connie becomes bitter towards Steven after an argument with him about leaving his twin sister behind, even saying that she wished she'd never met him. At first she still becomes angry, but slowly, she regrets calling and yelling at him after a rough week at school. After hurting a mean girl at school, she completely loses it and runs away with her childhood friend chasing her with worry. Eventually, Connie wished thought that everyone would be better without her, but after becoming unconscious, she meets her Guardian Angel, Raya, who shows her what the world would have been like without her there to help Steven. |
| 151 | ** She sees that her parents being a mess, her childhood friend being homeless, much more destruction to Beach City and beyond, Beach City being ruined, and worst of all...Steven left alone to face the diamonds, alone without his father or the other gems or anyone else there to help him. |
| 152 | ** Furthermore, two chapters later, Connie apologises to him, even going on to say that her temper, taken out on Steven, was what drove the two of them apart and that he had every right to get angry at her. Only then are they together again after a well-deserved hug. |
| 153 | * ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/36957265/chapters/92206114 Be Careful What You Wish For]]'', while in Khura'in, [[Franchise/AceAttorney Apollo Justice]] unknowingly makes contact with a powerful artifact while wishing that his father Jove Justice never died. He ends up in another world where not only is his father never killed, but his mother is also with them [[spoiler:and never lost her memories]], he has two full sisters, and even his best friend Clay Terran is alive as well. However, he already realizes that things aren't as perfect as it seems when he finds out he is still working for [[AmoralAttorney Kristoph Gavin]]. Moreso when he finds out that [[spoiler:Phoenix Wright has died nearly a decade ago]]. |
| 154 | * [[https://mylordshesacactus.tumblr.com/post/639304507405352960/so-i-woke-up-this-morning-with-the-inexplicable This]] ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' concept, later [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/28595397 made into a fic]], is about Joanna Greenleaf, the most OutOfFocus Happy Huntress, experiencing a world without her thanks to some magic tricks from Ozpin. Without Joanna to support and protect her, Robyn Hill dies young, preventing everything she ever did to help Mantle from ever happening. Without Joanna and Robyn as her support network, Fiona Thyme is forced to take the best work she can get, becoming a specialist for Atlas and holding up a system that oppresses people like her. And when May Marigold ran away from home, the Happy Huntresses were not there to embrace and lift her up. Instead, the noble daughter with so much righteous fury and loneliness was picked up by [[TheCorruptor Salem]] and became the fall maiden that destroys Beacon. |
| 155 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191460 Blessing in Disguise]]'', Red and Purple, sick and tired of Zim's constant screw-ups, decide to use a time machine to go back in time and kill Zim as a smeet before he could do any damage. When they return to the present, they find themselves no longer the Tallest. They quickly realise that without Zim to invent the blob monster that ate Miyuki and Spork, they never got promoted to fill in the gap. This resulted in a political incident that resulted in a war between the Meekrob and the Irkens. And without Zim's antics constantly forcing them to upgrade their tech, the Irkens are losing. |
| 156 | * ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' had one, in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14140729/1/I-m-Not-Listening I'm Not Listening]]'', in which Frasier is disgusted after his bad day, and wishes he never came to Seattle, leaving Bulldog as his angel show him how his relatives and friends' lives turned: It turned out that without him, Martin was in a nursing home, Cam bought his apartment to make a duplex, both Eddie and Niles died, Daphne and Roz are unhappy with their marital lives, Gil works at Nervosa and Bebe is jobless because Kate still is KACL's boss. Notice that in this world, neither Frasier nor Bulldog have it, due to the latter being a child DJ and the former still teaching psychiatry to Boston where he and Lilly became a libertine couple, while Freddie's mental health declined. Oh, and don't forget all lives Frasier did not improve without his show. |
| 157 | ** ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14221400/1/No-Niles-Land No Niles Land]]'' had a variation. In it, Niles wishes he was never born, leaving a guardian angel show him a world without him. It turned out Daphne and Frasier began a romance, but then had to break-up because Martin felt neglected. Martin then went back to his old apartment where he died alone. Daphne was in love with Bulldog and had to give up her career. Frasier himself slept with Roz, but without Niles, he asked advice from Dr Tewksbury and they finally began a family with Freddie, Roz and Alice but Alice felt jealous due to the fact she had no dad, and then, Frasier broke up with Roz and was forced to be replaced by Clint Webber at KACL. He ended up jobless and living thanks to Martin's savings, while Freddie went back to Boston and barely saw him. |
| 158 | *** ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14227401/1/Daphno Daphno]]'' introduces us to what if Daphné stayed in London. Except Frasier IS the one who shows her an alternative world. Without Daphne, Frederika was hired instead but Martin and Frasier's argument had it, and Frasier leave in order to move in the Montana. Niles did not visit as much, and ended up in the Shangri La where he stayed and became more like his new neighbors, with Frasier being a complete stranger to him. Roz quit the show after Bulldog tried to assault her and Frasier was not able to rehire her back because of the distance between the radio and his new home, Roz became a journalist and Frasier a kind of arrogant designer. Daphne herself remained at London, but was more a spinster. |
| 159 | *** [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14229933/1/Roz-s-Wonderful-Life Roz's Wonderful Life]] shows us what if Rick, Alice's genitor had stayed with Roz. Roz faints after a rough day and wakes up in a reality in which she raised Alice with her boyfriend, Rick. However, since she barely saw her daughter, she left KACL leaving Frasier alone. Nobody was here for Daphné and Joe when they broke up, and Niles never dared to seduce Daphné, leading her to go back to England with her mother. With Daphné gone, Martin and Sherry became an official couple, who bugged Frasier until they and Eddie moved out to Los Angeles. Frasier was alone in his life, while Niles actually ended up in an asylum. And Roz had a cat who licked her soles. |
| 160 | *** ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14262212/1/No-Gain-No-Pain No Gain No Pain]]'' shows Martin sad due to his wounded hip. After he expresses he wishes he never was, Hester shows him a parallele experience in which his partner Frank was killed instead. As Martin finally levels up and gains the most important post, in the police, he actually travels a lot and only sleeps in hostels. The fact he was not here results into Daphne becoming a vedette, while Niles felt alone since nobody was here for him during his Maris phase and ended up as a child psychologist. Frasier felt horribly guilty when both Brothers destroyed Duke's bar, resulting in Duke commiting suicide, while Frasier himself worked in a new cafe as a waiter. Roz herself found in jail, since nobody was here to listen to her, after Frasier resigned from KACL, and ended up without family. And not to mention that Eddie was adopted by Bulldog who actually mistreated the dog and only kept him in order to attract women. Martin , relieved it was a dream, is finally happy with his life. |
| 161 | * The Twitter WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss FanWebcomics ''[[https://twitter.com/wholetthemonst1/status/1660706624518889486 Without Blitzo]]'' centers around an unknown entity showing Blitzo what the world and his loved ones' lives would've been like if he had never been born. The results aren't pretty. Without his best friend to help him in his act, young Fizzarolli ends up on a horrible accident during a performance, costing him his limbs, with Cash Buckzo using him as a freak show attraction, for profit. Verosika never managed to reach the heights of her popularity, selling herself to Valentino in a desperate attempt for fame, which did little to boost her standing leaving her to perform until the overlord tired of her. Stolas would've had no friend in his life and little to hope for in his abusive marriage to Stella, and in a desperate and misguided attempt to help his daughter, he decided to send her on the same path Paimon gave him. The pain of which was too much for the prince causing him to isolate himself from the world, neglecting his duties, giving them to much cruler Ars Goetia, leading to a bloody aftermath. Loona would've gone completely feral when she turned 18, her mind snapping from being unwanted, forcing the Foundation to put her down. Moxxie, would've become a coldhearted mafioso, much like his own father, taking revenge on all those who wronged him. This included Chaz who was at the time happily pursuing Millie. In retribution, Millie went to confront Moxxie resulting both imps killings each other. |
| 162 | * [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/Distraught_by_your_Love/profile Distraught_by_your_Love]] wrote two fics where Adrien is hit by an akuma which puts him in a dream where the Miracle Box never existed. The first, ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/36722233 Another Time, Another Life]]'', has him waking up in a world where his mother never went into a coma since she never used the damaged Peacock Miraculous. The second, ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/48941161/chapters/123469225 Yet Another Life, Yet Another Time]]'' has similiar results [[spoiler:but with Adrien, Felix, and Kagami no longer existing without the Peacock Miraculous to create them]]. |
| 163 | * [[https://www.deviantart.com/rvbomally/art/You-Call-This-Archaeology-367872718 You Call This Archaeology?]] is an AlternateHistory variant, showing what the world of ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' would look like if Indy was [[TheHeroDies killed in Shanghai]]: [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom The Thuggees start an insurgency in India]] [[EnemyMine forcing the British to give India independence in exchange for its help in defeating the insurgency]], [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk while in Egypt, the Nazis capture the Ark of the Covenant]] and reveal it at the 1936 Olympics, [[DeusExMachina only for the wrath of God to kill the Nazi high command]], ultimately ending with the world locked in a supernatural SpaceColdWar between the [[{{Eagleland}} United States]], UsefulNotes/FascistItaly, and the [[CommieLand Soviet Union]]. |
| 164 | [[/folder]] |
| 165 | |
| 166 | [[folder:Films — Animation]] |
| 167 | * ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'': Shrek is tricked by Rumplestilskin into signing a contract that gives him a day as a real ogre in exchange for a day from his past. Unfortunately, [[JackassGenie the day taken away is the day he was BORN]], creating a world where Rumplestiltskin rules Far Far Away, ogres are hunted and repressed, Puss in Boots is fat, and Donkey is treated like a regular mule. |
| 168 | * ''WesternAnimation/MickeysTwiceUponAChristmas'': "Mickey's Dog Gone Christmas" has Pluto running away after being punished by Mickey by being sent to his doghouse. Unlike the real movie, it is subverted because Pluto is not eliminated from existence nor being shown events through flashbacks, but he does see from Santa and his elves what Mickey's life is like without him. |
| 169 | [[/folder]] |
| 170 | |
| 171 | [[folder:Films — Live-Action]] |
| 172 | * ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', of course, is the TropeNamer and TropeCodifier. The main character, George Bailey, finds out that his absence from the world was a PointOfDivergence has kicked off many different situations. Without him, no one was around to save his younger brother Harry from drowning in his childhood, and because Harry wasn't there to perform a heroic act on the battlefield in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, several soldiers he would have saved are now also dead. Furthermore, as George was not there to oppose Mr. Potter's predatory loan schemes and development plans, the quiet and idyllic Bedford Falls has turned into a ViceCity named [[{{Egopolis}} Pottersville]], and as he was never there to meet his wife Mary, she has ended up alone and unhappy. |
| 173 | ** As well as its {{Gender Flip}}ped, MadeForTVMovie remake, ''It Happened One Christmas''. |
| 174 | * ''Film/RichieRich'': ''Richie Rich's Christmas Wish'' has the entire plot of the film based on this, as Richie wishes (with a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wishing machine]]) that he never existed. |
| 175 | * ''Film/Bedazzled1967'': A poor schlub is tired of his nowhere life, tries to end it all, the Devil (an angel of sorts) intervenes and offers the chance to wish up an alternate existence (not once, but seven times) which gets him to see his old life is better than the alternative. The Devil was a JackassGenie, that's why the alternatives were so bad. |
| 176 | * ''Film/MrDestiny'', an '80s comedy starring Jim Belushi, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Caine in the Clarence role, subverted this trope a little; Jim Belushi's character always bemoaned the fact that he blew a game-saving play in high-school baseball, and Caine changed history so that he made the game-saver instead. Belushi then sees his life changing; he's now the Vice-President of the sporting goods company he's working for and married to the boss's daughter, but it turns out he's having an affair with a psychotic temptress, and his real wife from his old life (Hamilton), the one woman he truly loved, is married to someone else. |
| 177 | * ''Film/TheFamilyMan'' has the subverted/inverted version. His character is shown how much fuller and happier his life would be had he stayed with his girlfriend after college rather than moving to London and starting his [[LonelyAtTheTop rich-but-lonely]] life and career as a high-powered stockbroker. |
| 178 | * ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'' is one of the most famous (and ''cruelest'') subversions/deconstructions of this trope. The protagonist's life has been ''incredibly'' depressing, and all his friends and his girlfriend are worse off than before he met them. He uses his MentalTimeTravel abilities to correct his past mistakes, but each attempt ends up making things worse for his friends and/or himself. [[spoiler:Accepting that they really are better off without him, he eventually decides that the only way to make them all happy is to remove his presence from their lives entirely. The director's cut ending is even worse; in that version, he travels back 'to kill himself in his mother's womb'', just so his loved ones can live their lives without his damaging influence. There's a line from the doctor indicating she's had half a dozen miscarriages like that one...]] |
| 179 | * ''Film/ACaseOfSpringFever'' (these days more famous for being featured on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'') features a variant where ''springs'' are the missing element. Gilbert gets frustrated with fixing his sofa springs, and idly wishes he'd never have look at another spring again--so [[OddJobGods Coily the Spring Sprite]] grants his wish to teach him a lesson. The horrors of a world where nothing works because there are "No springs!" eventually makes Gilbert ask to undo his wish. |
| 180 | * ''Film/SecondGlance'' is a Christian youth film where the protagonist wishes he wasn't a believer. The next morning an angel shows up to let him experience his life as if he'd never been a Christian. Bonus points for the protagonist supposedly having to live as a non-believer, [[FlatEarthAtheist while his new life is being explained to him by an angel]]. |
| 181 | * ''Film/SixteenWishes'' subverts this: Abby gets a wish that transforms her into an adult, causing her to see what her friends and family's lives are like without her in them. [[spoiler: She realizes that she was a major brat and that everybody was actually better off without her.]] She promptly changes her ways after undoing the wish. |
| 182 | * In ''Film/{{Reconstruction}}'', a Danish arthouse film, the protagonist sleeps with another man's wife and wakes up in a world where he never existed. |
| 183 | * ''Film/TheSantaClause3TheEscapeClause'' uses this plot for the second half of the movie. Jack Frost tricks Scott into wishing he never became Santa and they are both transported back in time, allowing Jack to put on the original Santa's coat so he can become the new Santa. In the new timeline, Scott's family has become a bunch of miserable cynics who resent him for being a workaholic at his office job, which has led Laura and Neil to divorce; Jack Frost has turned the North Pole into a Vegas-like resort that completely commercializes Christmas; and parents have to pay to put their children on the nice list, making them (including Lucy) into greedy brats. |
| 184 | * ''Film/DonnieDarko'': Inverted, although you can only see it by contemplating [[GainaxEnding the ending]]. [[spoiler: At the beginning, the schizophrenic Donnie was saved from a completely inexplicable accident by one of his visions of an "imaginary" friend. In the ending, having somehow discovered the secret of time travel and having seen what happened to other people when he lived -- most of it was actually pretty positive until the end when people died -- he rewinds the movie's events and is back in bed right before the accident, finally at peace as he waits to die. Apparently in the more explained version he's also/instead saving the world this way.]] |
| 185 | * ''Timeless Love'' basically opens at the end of Megan having had the equivalent of the experience depicted in ''Film/TheFamilyMan'', as she wakes up from a coma during which she saw what her life could have been like with a family, which leads to her meeting and falling for the ‘real’ version of the man she loved in the ‘dream’. |
| 186 | * ''Film/JourneyBackToChristmas'': Played with; the film basically inverts the trope by giving the protagonist a chance to understand her role in the lives of her friends by witnessing the world that will result ''because'' of her presence rather than looking at the world if she wasn't there. Hanna, a nurse in 1945, is feeling useless and depressed in her life, as her husband has been declared dead and she feels as though she has no real impact on the world. When a mysterious comet passes over her town, Hanna is sent forward in time to 2016, where she spends some time meeting the residents of her hometown before an old man who was her orphaned patient as a child tells her about his life since she 'vanished'; he was adopted by a rich couple after Hanna returned their dog to them the night she went missing, the dog owners went on to open a shelter for other dogs, and the family that has been hosting her in the present are actually the descendants of a couple she introduced when the man was in hospital and the woman was a fellow nurse. He explicitly concludes that the reason she was brought to the future was to witness the impact she would have on the lives of those around her. At the conclusion, Hanna learns that she will return to her time when she discovers a letter she will write to her now-senile best friend/colleague dated August 1946, travelling back to the past when the same comet that sent her forward in the first place passes over again as part of its seventy-one-year cycle. |
| 187 | * In the Christian film ''Film/TimeChanger'', a 19th-century theologian named Russell Carlisle is sent forward in time to the early 2000s so that he can see what the world would be like if he published a book arguing that you can be moral without God. It turns out that the world would be... [[NextSundayAD pretty much exactly like our modern world]], with [[NewMediaAreEvil porn on TV]], people cursing in movies, [[PoorMansPorn sexy mannequins in department stores]], and other such things that [[TheFutureIsShocking shock Russell's moral sensibilities]]. Convinced he was wrong, he returns to his own time and decides not to publish his book after all. (How [[TemporalMutability we still wind up in the same future]] as if he had published is [[FridgeLogic left as an exercise for the viewer]].) |
| 188 | * ''Film/ItsAWonderfulKnife2023'' is a slasher movie take on the formula - the surviving final girl of a Christmas Eve slasher attack has a survivor’s guilt spiral one year later, wishes herself out of existence, and inadvertently brings back the killer she defeated as well. |
| 189 | * In a very downplayed version, ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' has the Green Goblin from [[Creator/SamRaimi Sam Raimi's]] ''Film/SpiderMan1'' get sent to the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] and finds that Oscorp dose not exist and somebody else is living in his home. This places him in a [[VillainousBSoD Villainous BSoD]] from how out of place he has become. |
| 190 | * Alan’s plot in ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' is him seeing how his twenty-six year long absence not only affected his parents, but also all of Branford with businesses being shut down and people being homeless. |
| 191 | [[/folder]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 194 | * The {{Trope Namer|s}} is loosely based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern called ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Gift_%28story%29 The Greatest Gift]].'' |
| 195 | * ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'': |
| 196 | ** ''Sweet Valley Twins'' plays this entirely straight in a Christmas special book, in which Elizabeth wishes she'd never been born and promptly receives a visitation from a quirky guardian angel who shows her a vision of what life would be like. It's heavy on alternate scenarios based on Elizabeth's actions in previous books, but also contains a couple of more nonsensical changes: the club of shallow, popular rich girls is transformed into a vicious girl gang, and Elizabeth's sister Jessica goes from bubbly, stylish, and popular to shy, geeky, and pathetic. |
| 197 | ** Subverted in a Super Edition, ''Winter Carnival'', where Elizabeth becomes annoyed with Jessica's forgetfulness and selfishness when it causes a rift in her budding romance with Jeffrey French during a winter festival at a ski resort. Elizabeth is upset and leaves, angrily wishing that Jessica wasn't around to mess things up. When she arrives home, she finds out that Jessica is dead. With Jessica gone, everyone in Sweet Valley is depressed and spends a lot of time remembering Jessica's bubbly personality and forgetting about Elizabeth. She wakes up and realizes that it was AllJustADream and makes up with Jessica and Jeffrey. |
| 198 | * ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' did this in one book, with Jake making a DealWithTheDevil with Crayak to CosmicRetcon the timeline so that the Animorphs never received their powers in the first place. The kids end up winning the war with the Yeerks FASTER without their powers, but it's largely due to Cassie being [[TechnoBabble "sub-temporally grounded"]], which seems to give her some degree of reality-warping powers when she isn't in her "right" universe. Even with that, most of them die in the process. |
| 199 | * Parodied in ''Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire'', and given as Prince Albert's motivation for introducing Germanic pagan influences onto the English Christmas and becoming a FunnyForeigner. |
| 200 | * A variant in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', when Vimes accidentally picks up his Dis-Organiser from the [[AlternateUniverse wrong timeline]] immediately after making a difficult decision; while the Vimes depicted chooses to go on a ship and try and rescue Constable Angua, allowing him to avert the war by introducing a disruptive element in Klatch, the alternate Dis-Organiser gives a running commentary on what's happening in the universe where Vimes stays in Ankh-Morpork and tries to work within Rust's regime. In this other world, the Klatchians invade and [[AlternateTimeline the entire Watch gets killed, ending with Vimes himself]]. (Presumably, made even worse by the Dis-Organiser in ''that'' universe telling Vimes how much better things would be going if he'd gone to Klatch.) |
| 201 | * The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''First Frontier'' is about a group of aliens (who turn out to be sentient descendants of Earth dinosaurs who were rescued by the Preservers) using the Guardian of Forever to avert the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. This erases the human race from history (and the dinosaurs' descendants ended up nuking themselves out of existence anyway). When the ''Enterprise'' is protected from the time change and sees what the galaxy would have become without humans, it's basically "It's Humanity's Wonderful Life", a [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Galaxy]] in which the Romulans' total domination is only challenged by the Vulcans helping the Klingons build suicide-attack missiles against them. |
| 202 | * ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': At the beginning of ''Literature/LoomingShadow'', Eric and Tasio discuss this trope. Tasio said he expected Eric to find him earlier when he was at a wedding helping the bride and groom get over mutual cold feet. Eric sarcastically asks if he did this trope but oriented towards the future (if they backed out of the wedding). Tasio replies negatively, "that would be ridiculous". |
| 203 | * In the Nikos Kazantzakis novel ''Literature/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'', the last temptation itself is when an angel rescues Jesus from the cross and shows him how his life will be as just a regular human being, instead of the Son of God. However, [[spoiler:the angel is actually Satan]]. The similarity to ''It's a Wonderful Life'' was actually one of the reasons that Creator/MartinScorsese's long-planned film adaptation finally got greenlighted. |
| 204 | * ''Literature/TheFamiliars'': Bloodhounds have the power to see the past if they'd made a different choice, and possibly show it to others, which many view as a curse since they feel like they're constantly seeing their mistakes. Aldwyn sees a world where he wasn't chosen and another familiar was chosen, one much better than him who finished the quest, and feels hopelessly inadequate. [[spoiler: As we later learn though, Aldwyn was key to restoring the balance between humans and animals, and while the other world defeated Paksahara more quickly, the oppressive regime remained because the only one who challenged it was silenced.]] |
| 205 | * Author Susan Beth Pfieffer once wrote a series called ''Portraits of Little Women'', which featured Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy in their own books at age ten. The original books spawned Special Editions, including a Christmas book wherein each girl had a Christmas dream. Beth's dream was It's a Wonderful Plot because she had come to think her shy nature meant she was neither noticed nor needed. Possibly HarsherInHindsight, considering [[spoiler: Beth's eventual death in canon.]] Pfeiffer stays true to that. |
| 206 | * ''Literature/JaineAustenMysteries'': Jaine has one of these in a dream in "Nightmare on Elf Street", in which she never adopted her cat Prozac. Apparently, she's no longer friends with her neighbor Lance because Prozac never dug up his flowers, leading her to make amends with him over margaritas, she's so lonely she starts naming her philodendron and her ''socks'', her dry cleaner and Fancy Feast shut down because she didn't go to them to fulfill Prozac's needs, and Prozac now lives in a Bel-Air mansion where she is named Tinkerbelle and has her own room... and her own maid. Once Jaine wakes up to appreciate her kitty, [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment it's never brought up again]]. |
| 207 | [[/folder]] |
| 208 | |
| 209 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 210 | * The storyline of the Music/BillyJoel music video for his song "You're Only Human (Second Wind)". |
| 211 | * Beethoven himself gets this in the Music/TransSiberianOrchestra concept album ''Beethoven's Last Night''. It involves a ''tenth'' symphony and Mephistopheles. |
| 212 | * The Music/GwenStefani song "Wonderful Life" plays with a less fantastical version of this trope, referencing the impact a now-missing lover had on the narrator's life. |
| 213 | -->''If you only knew what you gave to me / Now you can't be found'' |
| 214 | * The Music/InsaneClownPosse song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3I2EVNE7Ms "Halls of Illusions"]] has the duo torturing assholes and [[LowerClassLout layabouts]] with a [[AmusementParkOfDoom twisted amusement park dark ride]] that shows the victims visions of what their families would be like if they'd never been a part of their lives -- and then follows it up by showing how things ''really'' turned out, inevitably far worse than those idealized portraits. Then, as the icing on the cake, they get killed in brutal fashion as punishment for how they lived their lives and destroyed those of the people around them. |
| 215 | -->''See what could've, and should've, and would've been real / But you had to fuck up the whole deal'' |
| 216 | [[/folder]] |
| 217 | |
| 218 | [[folder:Puppet Shows]] |
| 219 | * ''Film/ItsAVeryMerryMuppetChristmasMovie'' is a direct take on ''It's a Wonderful Life''. After a series of mishaps, Kermit wishes he was never born, a guardian angel named Daniel shows him what the world would be like and what Franchise/TheMuppets would be doing if Kermit never existed. Once again, similar to the original film, every character has a different lifestyle without Kermit having been there to join the group together. Unfortunately, Daniel's not too sure how to bring them back. |
| 220 | * An episode of ''Series/TheBasilBrushShow'' has this happen. After Basil spends all of the money on cosmetics (namely, for looking after his "brush"), he and his friends risk having to stay in the flat without electricity or heating. Whilst the others go off caroling, he starts feeling sorry for himself on a bridge. An old man (later shown to be Santa Claus) shows up and shows Basil that he makes lots of people happy, but Basil doesn't get it and wishes he was never born, so the old man sends him to a reality where his thieving cousin now does his show and where the people he helped and now in worse situations. Basil learns his lesson and after begging to exist again ends up in his own reality again. He goes home and finds everyone celebrating Christmas as one of his flatmates found a note with a large sum of money, conveniently. |
| 221 | * ''Series/SesameStreet'' has a direct-to-video ChristmasSpecial, ''Film/ElmoSavesChristmas'' (1996), which plays with this trope. After Elmo saves SantaClaus while staying up late, the former is presented with a snow globe that grants wishes. Elmo uses the snow globe to wish that it could be Christmas every day, and SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs: it starts innocently enough, as Christmas mixes with other holidays such as Easter and the 4th of July, but a year later, all the stores are boarded up, Big Bird can't see Snuffy, the carolers strain their voices from singing too much, Christmas trees are an endangered species, and everyone in general is utterly sick of the holiday and can't afford to give real presents anymore (even the Count, who should logically be overjoyed because now he has an infinite number of Christmases to count). Bonus points for including lots of direct references to the TropeNamer, culminating with Bert and Ernie in shock watching the scene from the movie where George comes across, well, Bert and Ernie. ("What's the matter with you two guys? You sang to me here on my wedding night!") This doubles as a FandomNod to the people who think that the Muppets are named after the characters from the movie, which the creators deny. |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 225 | * ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' two-parter "It's A Polkenberry Christmas" did this to George Barclay (fittingly enough, as the Barclay family were based on the characters from ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''). The first part has George's life in tatters - the church can't pay its bills because Ellis (the clerk) has mislaid the cheque; the landowner refuses to sympathize; Stuart (his youngest son) falls off his bike and has an injury, prompting George to chew out the mother of the boy who was teaching him to ride the bike, which in turn leads to him being chewed out by the husband afterward. George eventually ends up on a bridge wallowing in his thoughts of pity. Meanwhile, Mr. Whittaker and Eugene, who are visiting the family, find that George has gone out and, fearing the state of mind he's in, decide to look for him. They go their separate ways and Eugene finds George on a bridge, thinking he's about to throw himself into the river. Ironically, Eugene slips on the ice and falls into the river, and George has to go in and save him. After doing so Eugene takes George back to the motel where he's staying with Mr. Whittaker, only to find their clothes are now dry as if they'd never been in the water at all, the receptionist doesn't remember Mr. Whittaker ever checking in with Eugene (and he isn't on the computer record either) and the receptionist, a classmate of Jimmy's (George's eldest son), doesn't remember working with him on a class project. Things go downhill from there: no one recognizes George, Ellis is a thieving street bum and the church has been turned into a golf course. Eugene postulates that George's attitude and the incident with the river is what sent them into this version of reality. They then phone up Mr. Whittaker (who is at Whit's End in Odyssey, as in this reality he had no reason to come to Polkenberry Falls), who tells George that he lost faith in God, is estranged from his wife, is himself missing and Stuart was never born. Unable to accept what is happening, George chews out Eugene, who refuses to take any responsibility. Enraged, George attempts to find his family using phone books in a library, only to attract the attention of the police. Evading capture, George wishes he was alive again and ends up back in the river with Euguene, realising the experience was AllJustADream. They return to the household where the church congregation has gathered the money required to pay off the debt and George celebrates Christmas with his family. And the "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings" line gets parodied as well. |
| 226 | ** A previous episode features Donna wishing Jimmy was never born and ends up having a day where Jimmy was never born at all. Donna finds that being an only child isn't all it's cracked up to be. |
| 227 | * ''Radio/OldHarrysGame'' subverts this in the second episode of series two, in which Satan, an ex-angel, asks Thomas if he has seen the film before taking him to see "all the crap things that did happen because he was born". |
| 228 | * In the February 2, 1947 episode of ''Radio/TheJackBennyProgram'', Jack goes to see ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' and calls it improbable. Later that day he hits his head and has a dream sequence in which he sees what the world would be like if he'd never been born. Don Wilson is a farmer, Phil Harris is playing at crummy dives, Dennis Day works for [[TheRival Fred Allen]], and Mary Livingstone, who had been flirting with Jack before the dream began, is married--to Frank Nelson! |
| 229 | [[/folder]] |
| 230 | |
| 231 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 232 | * One of frequent "Good GameMaster Pro Tips" in RPGT is playing out a "zero" variant(s) for adventures -- what would happen if {{Player Character}}s don't appear at all? What would happen if PC start their quest and then only blunder aimlessly? This forces GM to check and "pre-cache" at least some of necessary sources, creates a frame of reference for NPC reactions, and helps to see the world as working on its own, i.e. find and draw the fine line between a "hero" and an "unintentional KnightTemplar." |
| 233 | * ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' has a particularly nightmarish example. The Ordo Dracul is a bunch of vampire mad social scientists, and they invoke this trope by killing a random joe and see how life goes on without his presence. This is one of the factions that the player character can join. |
| 234 | [[/folder]] |
| 235 | |
| 236 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 237 | * ''Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge'', Christopher Durang's AffectionateParody of classic Christmas stories, features the typical subversion, with the title character learning that everyone's much better off without her. |
| 238 | * In ''Foggerty's Fairy'', an 1881 play by W. S. Gilbert, Frederick Foggerty's FairyGodmother Rebecca grants his wish that his ex-fiancée, Delia Spiff, never existed, in hopes of preserving his relationship with current fiancée Jennie Talbot. Spiff's removal has many [[GoneHorriblyWrong unintended consequences]], including Jennie's engagement to Foggerty's friend Walkinshaw and both men having relationships with [[TheCasanova [=ManEater=]]] Malvina de Vere, culminating in Foggerty about to be committed to an insane asylum. [[spoiler:The examination of causality is ultimately abandoned when Foggerty coerces Rebecca into simply restoring his former circumstances while maintaining Spiff's elimination.]] This work predates the TropeNamer [[OlderThanRadio by several generations]], and audiences were confused by the unfamiliar storytelling device. |
| 239 | * A complicated inversion in ''Theater/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'': The plot hinges on Harry and Draco's sons Albus and Scorpio going into the past to prevent Cedric Diggory's death during the Triwizard Tournament. The first time they do so, [[spoiler:Ron and Hermione never got married, the relationship between Albus and Harry is even worse, and Cedric is still dead]]. The second time, they decide to hex Cedric directly, [[spoiler:causing him to become a Death Eater and murder Neville, meaning Harry died for good due to Nagini functioning as the last Horcrux, and Voldemort ruling supreme (and with Umbridge in power).]] In the ed, they try to undo their meddling, creating a CloseEnoughTimeline. |
| 240 | * In December 2019, Minneapolis' Mounds Theater premiered ''[[http://moundstheatre.org/event/its-an-honorable-life/ It's an Honorable Life]]'', a translation of ''Wonderful Life'' to [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingon culture]]. |
| 241 | [[/folder]] |
| 242 | |
| 243 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 244 | * ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' screws around with this, and other AlternateUniverse tropes. There are two mirror alternate history universes and in one the protagonist is dead, so among other things, you can see how things play out in his absence. Or, rather, in the other, you get to see how things play out ''without'' his absence since the history where he died is the "real" one. |
| 245 | * ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' gives an interesting exploration into this trope with Dr. W.D Gaster. Gaster was a character who was DummiedOut of the game's script. In the world of ''Undertale'' though, everything to make up the game has an in-universe discussion of gaming tropes, thus Gaster's fate as a cut character was turned into a hidden horror of a brilliant scientist who, after an accident, was {{Retgone}} from the world along with people connected to him. Occasionally they flit about between the void of nonexistence and the game world and can only lament their fate and give you cryptic clues about the Doctor. And worse, while Gaster's impact in the world still exists, his accomplishments were simply passed on and credited to other characters (he made the CORE, but in the game, it's implied the monsters believe it was Asgore or Alphys' doing) and the world simply kept moving on. |
| 246 | [[/folder]] |
| 247 | |
| 248 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 249 | * It's the plot of ''WebAnimation/{{Eddsworld}}'''s 2005 Christmas special. For the most part, Edd's influence has been positive; without Edd, Matt would have wandered off and become a hobo, Tord would have become a communist megalomaniac (or, as "The End (Part 2)" shows, [[spoiler:he would have become a communist megalomaniac eleven years early]]), and Coca-Cola would have gone out of business, but Tom is unambiguously better off (having become a wealthy artist). |
| 250 | [[/folder]] |
| 251 | |
| 252 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 253 | %%* Subverted in ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'', because the guardian angel Seraphim did not have enough funds. |
| 254 | * An inverted theme in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'', where both protagonists' lives are better in the altered reality than they were in the original. Ash has a relationship with her mother whereas before he never even met her, and Emily [[spoiler: may have died if reality hadn't changed]]. This, of course, just leads to more angst for Ash and ties into the comic's transgender themes. Ash's life would be much better if he could just accept her GenderBender... but that doesn't mean he should have to. |
| 255 | * Predictably enough, used in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' around Christmas 2009, with a short shown on a dystopian alternative Earth, called "It's a Wonderful Life, Citizen". It's about someone who is miserable and wishes he was never born. Because happiness is mandatory in that place, his desire in the sense of no longer existing [[spoiler:(in that universe, anyway)]] is granted, and everyone agrees they're happier without him. The story has AnAesop: Report anyone who's unhappy to the authorities. |
| 256 | * ''Webcomic/SexyLosers'' hilariously skewers it with the aptly titled [[http://sexylosers.com/168.html "It's a Wonderfully Shitty Life"]]. ''I was supposed to help somebody?'' |
| 257 | * ''Webcomic/BugMartini'': One of the Bug's irrational fears is that [[https://www.bugmartini.com/comic/irrational-fears/ this trope will be subverted for him]]. |
| 258 | * ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'' has the arc "It's a Wonderful Dog's Life" where the human Joel (a PETA member who helped kidnap a dog) was turned into a [[LaserGuidedKarma Welsh corgi named King]]. The arc is more a deconstruction, as the supernatural force who transforms him, "Pete", has no intention to change him back. And with subsequent events, it's unlikely he'll ''ever'' be changed back. |
| 259 | * Butch of ''Webcomic/ChoppingBlock'' had a dream about this, in which he discovered how much better the world would be without him. (The dream ended with him violently killing the angel.) |
| 260 | * ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' featured a rhyming take on the story for Christmas 2013, in which King Dedede wonders if the world would have been better if he had never existed; Pit appears to show him an alternate universe in which Midknight (actually [[spoiler:Waddle Dee]]) rules as a dictator. [[spoiler:While Dedede's ending is played straight, the arc itself ends with the BetterIfNotBornPlot: Pit is showing [[EnsembleDarkhorse Waluigi]] how much better the world would be without him.]] |
| 261 | -->'''Pit:''' If you never existed, the world would be bliss! Well, whatdya think?\ |
| 262 | [[spoiler:'''Waluigi:''' WAA! Waluigi hates this.]] |
| 263 | * ''Webcomic/OriginalLife'' subverts it. An angel appears to Fisk and shows him how horrible things would be without him. But it's a FelonyMisdemeanor at best. The angel can't earn his wings unless Fisk learns a lesson, but the problem is, Fisk is already happy with his life. There's no lesson to learn because he already knows it. He agrees the world would suck without him, however, stroking his own ego, but it's enough for the angel to say mission accomplished and get his wings. |
| 264 | * Played with in ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/1108 here]]. A ghost comes to show someone what would happen if he gave up fighting about the word "literally". Literally nothing changes. |
| 265 | * Lampshaded in [[http://fulltimeink.com/archives/8565 this]] strip of ''Webcomic/PhilLikesTacos''. |
| 266 | * ''Webcomic/DorkTower'' has an arc where Clearance, the guardian angel of small stores, shows Bill of Pegasaurus Games a world where gaming shops like his don't exist. At first it seems to be better; the dorks have more money and nerds at a high school they visit aren't getting picked on, but then it turns out Igor was able to munchkin his way into the presidency of the United States without gaming to distract him, and he's bent on world domination. |
| 267 | * ''[[http://www.viruscomix.com/estar.html Captain Estar Goes to Heaven]]'' -- A young woman who leads a hellish life finds a world that may actually be Heaven. She is offered a "Wonderful Life" that she never had ... can she deal with it? |
| 268 | * A ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' called ''It's A Wonderful Sexy Christmas Special'' (NSFW) has Buster shown what his friends would be like if he didn't exist. Seeing Babs on the CastingCouch really does it for him... |
| 269 | [[/folder]] |
| 270 | |
| 271 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 272 | * In ''WebAnimation/TheAnnoyingOrange'' episode called Wishful Thinking, when Orange feels like everyone is not paying attention to him and after seeing Passion kiss Pear, Orange wishes he wasn’t born. Then, a magic mistletoe comes and shows Orange what the kitchen would be like without him. Everything looked normal but however, some of the fruits are having a bad time. Pear struggles at making friends, Little Apple is dating Passion, and worse yet, without Orange to warn everyone, Marshmallow gets put into a cup of hot chocolate and gets killed. This is when Orange begins to realize he’s important, but the mistletoe was actually Liam the Leprechaun, who was upset that he didn’t get invited to Orange’s Christmas party. In the end, Orange returns to his own world, and it turns out that Passion didn’t kiss Pear. It was actually her sister. |
| 273 | * The short video "[[http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/184/its_a_wonderful_game It's a Wonderful Game]]" by WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun is a silly take on this trope. The protagonist, in a rage about not being able to defeat the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' for the NES once he ran out of new games to play, wishes that Mario had never been made. The result? "Bring him back! Bring Mario back!" |
| 274 | * The 2010 ''[[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic Nostalgia Critic]]'' ChristmasEpisode "You're a Rotten Dirty Bastard" parodies this plot. The Critic quits his job due to being angry about there being nothing to review for Christmas. Roger, his guardian angel, comes in to show how other people on the Website/ChannelAwesome Team live without his existence, only for everyone to be much better off without him. WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob is a giant porn star, [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] owns both Marvel and DC Comics, WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick is married and is a major director of films such as ''[[TakeThat Twilight: The Good Version]]'', [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow Angry Joe]] is the President of the United States who blows up the evil Canada ([[RunningGag naturally]], killing WebVideo/{{Phelous}}) [[spoiler:and has publicly executed Tom Green]], and [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] has taken the Critic's job, gives positive reviews to ''Film/LastActionHero'' and ''Film/{{Junior}}'', and is loved even by the trolls. When Roger discovers [[spoiler:he could have been God's greatest angel and successor without the Critic, he tries to kill him, only to learn that God lied about angels being ImmuneToBullets]]. The Critic realizes [[{{Jerkass}} he improved his own life]] and goes back to his old self. All narrated by Santa Christ. Doug Walker said in commentary that he was disappointed to find out this trope had been subverted [[ItsBeenDone numerous times before]], but still hopes that this is the only rendition where they [[spoiler:look at the Angel's life without him]]. |
| 275 | * WebVideo/TheNecroCritic's review of ''Film/TheSantaClause3TheEscapeClause'' both discusses and parodies this trope. In his previous video, he wished that he had never become The Necro Critic at all, resulting in him appearing as a ghost in a world where he never existed. However, in a fairly unique subversion, his "angelic guide" tells him that his life had practically no impact on the world whatsoever, good or bad. With Necro out of the picture, the only thing that's changed is the fact that his brother/sidekick, Devil Critic, has taken over his role as an internet reviewer. [[spoiler:However, Devil later reveals that he only reviewed the movie as a favor to Necro, who presumably disappeared on him because it was THAT terrible. It turns out that Necro's guide was an assassin who lied to him in order to make him miserable and have him accept Devil as his replacement before killing him.]] |
| 276 | * In the ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' episode, "[[BirthdayEpisode Bowser Junior's Eleventh Birthday!]]", when no one shows up to Junior's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's, Junior wishes he were never born. He gets knocked out playing Skee-Ball and has a dream where God shows him what life would be like if he were never born. In this alternate timeline, Bowser's old house never burned down, Bowser died from watching TV non-stop, Chef Pee Pee [[ThrowTheDogABone became a professional chef who owns a five-star restaurant]], Brookln T. Guy became homeless due to not having any problems to solve, Cody became interested in dating girls, and Joseph starved to death. [[spoiler: In the end, it is revealed that the reason why no one showed up to Junior's birthday party [[ShaggyDogStory was because it was the next day]].]] |
| 277 | * In the ''WebAnimation/DorklyOriginals'' video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPorf0fwOc It's A Wonderful Extra Life]], [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Luigi]] is given a view of what would happen if he never was born. What happens is that [[VideoGame/MarioIsMissing Mario goes missing]], giving Bowser the chance to take over the Mushroom Kingdom, Daisy settles for Waluigi, and the ghosts of that [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion haunted mansion]] were free to torment everyone else. |
| 278 | [[/folder]] |
| 279 | ---- |
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