Two characters who since they first met have been at odds with each other — or even active enemies — decide in the wake of some event or epiphany to wipe the slate clean and start their relationship anew. To symbolize this new beginning, they re-enact a new "first meeting" between themselves by shaking hands and trading introductions. Sometimes they also trade capsule descriptions of themselves.
Not to be confused with Relationship Reset Button.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- When she's first introduced, Mimimi Utsukushisugi of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You holds a grudge against Nano Eiai for spurning her offer of friendship after the latter defeated her in a beauty pageant. Though they manage to reconcile in Mimimi's introductory arc, Mimimi later challenges her to a redo of the pageant at their old junior high upon realizing that Nano feels guilty about how she'd handled it. This time it ends in a draw.
Comic Books
- After the Infinite Crisis, Batman returned to Gotham City and decided to give the former corrupt cop Harvey Bullock another chance.
Film
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: The two main love interests literally wipe the slate clean... if by "slate" you mean "the memories of their romance".
- Invoked in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Both John and Jane find out that the other is a paid assassin and, by extension, that everything they've told each other about themselves is a lie. Each starts telling the other the truth about their real selves, and John notes, "We're going to have to redo every conversation we've ever had."
- In Shrek 2, Shrek and Fiona's dad get off on the wrong foot, since he wasn't expecting his daughter to marry an ogre, and it messes up the arrangement he had with the Fairy Godmother, who intended her son Prince Charming to rescue Fiona. As part of the Fairy Godmother's plan, King Harold apologizes to Shrek for his previous behavior, and asks if they can pretend the whole thing never happened. Since Shrek is feeling guilty for his own temper, he accepts.
- Dave Ryder and Lea Jansen do this in Space Mutiny right after she shows off her, uh, dancing.
Literature
- Oliver Twisted: When they first met, Dodge tricked Oliver into Fagin's hands. After being rescued by the Knights, Oliver and Dodge, the latter having split from Fagin's gang, they decide to be friends and reintroduce themselves to each other, and Dodge reveals his real name: Jack Dawkins.
- Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: From Princesses Are Never Lost, after being split from the party and having to rely on each other to survive an Enchanted Forest, Gwen and Selvi forge a better relationship over their similarities so they can peacefully coexist in the party and find the rest of their companions:
Here we are, she thought as the silence deepened. Two little girls who just want their fathers to come and rescue them, though we'd never admit it. Child of elves and child of orcs, but still the same beneath it all. She sighed and stood up. Quickly she tugged her right glove off and presented the bare hand to the barbarian.
[...]
"I think we got off to a bad start, back at the Academy," she said. "So let me introduce myself properly now. Hello, my name is Gwen, and I'm half human."
The khan's daughter stared another moment longer, then took that hand in her own and shook it. "Hello," she answered, a little slower and slightly confused. "My name is Selvi, and I'm half human, too." - In Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Tristran Thorn does this with the star.
- Suggested in Wizard and Glass by Susan after she and the witch Rhea are at each other's throats about two minutes after they've met. Susan asks if they could "begin again"; Rhea says that's impossible but "perhaps we could go on better than we began." They don't.
Live-Action TV
- One episode of Full House has a disastrous first meeting between the Tanners and Joey's new girlfriend due to her being nervous about living up to everything Joey had told the family about her. The episode ends with her re-introducing herself, and the Tanners saying, "Joey has told us absolutely nothing about you."
- In Scrubs, the Janitor has offered this to JD a few times. It's almost always a trick, and even if it isn't, Failure Is the Only Option for all their attempts at a relationship reboot.
- On Happy Days, Richie and Lori Beth do this, complete with reenacting their original Meet Cute dialog.
- Pandora begs Thomas to let them do this (after her cheating with Cook) at the end of Katie And Emily's Skins episode.
Pandora: Please, can we start again? I promise, I promise I'll never...
Thomas: Hello, I'm Thomas. So glad to meet you.
Theater
- Danielle and Campbell from Bring It On: The Musical reintroduce themselves while making up from the huge fight that nearly ended both their friendship and their squad.
- In The Most Happy Fella, Tony and Rosabella go through "Happy To Meet Your Acquaintance" in their first scene together since their wedding (which took place just after Tony was badly injured in a truck accident). Even more poignant is the final scene, where Tony recalls (in words and music) the note from him that Rosabella (or, to use her real name, Amy) read off a restaurant menu in the first scene.
Video Games
- In Ikemen Sengoku, Hideyoshi and the female main character start off on the complete wrong foot with him mistakenly believing that she's a spy or assassin targeting his lord Nobunaga and keeping her under constant surveillance for a week to make sure she doesn't try anything funny. When Hideyoshi realizes that he was wrong about the MC and that he partly contributed to her literally working herself sick out of stress, he reintroduces himself to her and vice versa on much friendlier terms.
Webcomics
- At the end of the fifth chapter of Cat Legend, Sarah does this with Dorian. The congeniality of their second introduction is especially ironic in light of the fact that they are both sporting highly visible facial injuries they inflicted on each other.
- In a very literal case, at various points in Diesel Sweeties, the main character has literally rebooted her (robot) boyfriend after they'd broken up.
- Towards the end of the Sister arc in El Goonish Shive, Ellen and Nanase
do this. This is an unusual example, because Ellen is a magical Opposite-Sex Clone of one of the main characters, and despite having all of Elliot's memories, Ellen is an entirely new and different person without a friend in the world, which is causing her quite a bit of angst. Slightly subverted, as Nanase doesn't get it at first. Ellen then goes on to reintroduce herself to the entire cast, with Nanase threatening to bitch slap anyone who laughs.
- Something*Positive, Halloween 2004.
"Hello, I'm Peejee."
"Hi, I'm Mike. Sometimes I'm an asshole."
"That's fine by me. The interesting people always are."
Western Animation
- Played with in an episode of Family Guy, where Quagmire lets slip one of his fantasies about Lois to Peter:
Quagmire: Is it possible she's a whore? ...You know, like on weekends, just to pay for her mom's dialysis? ...Like in my fantasy? ...Y'know what, let's start over. Hi, I'm Quagmire! (offers his hand)
