History Main / EternalRecurrence

* In Marvel's ''Comicbook/{{EarthX}}'', time is presented as a circle. One day, humanity's mutation will run its course and we will lose our identities to become whatever people think we are or need us to be, then go back in time and become the Asgardians.
* In the mainstream Creator/MarvelUniverse, Galactus is the sole survivor of the universe that existed before the Big Bang and also the seed for the universe that will come into being when the current one is destroyed.
** Ragnarok used to do this to Asgard in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse until Thor broke the cycle.
** According to ''Ultimates'', the Marvel Universe is currently in its eighth iteration. The crossover series ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' marked the break between the seventh and eighth iteration. [[spoiler: There is a survivor from the very first iteration, The First Firmament. He wants everything to return to the way things once were, which would be bad news for everyone else.]]

* In ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'', the Silk Man and at least three of the Jin En Mok are the only survivors of Yahweh's previous creations (although the Jin En Mok may have existed before even those). It isn't entirely clear how many creations there have been already, but we're given the impression He's been doing this for quite a while.
** It might not have even been Yahweh's creation, considering that the comic gives us two new fully-fledged Creators. Some interpret this as the Creation where Yahweh originally came from.
* In Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' meta-project, the Sheeda ([[spoiler:the species that inherit the Earth in the far-fetched future when the sun has become a red giant]]) travel through time in their Castle Revolving to plunder humanity's technology whenever we reach a sufficiently advanced point of development - first they raided a [[Creator/JackKirby Kirby-esque]] society of Neanderthal super-scientists, then a utopian, world-wide Kingdom of Camelot as ruled by the original progenitor of the Arthur myth, and then finally our world shortly after the turn of the millennium - that's where the eponymous heroes come in.
* IDW stories about the beginning of the war on Cybertron, such as ''ComicBook/TheTransformersAutocracy'' and ''ComicBook/TheTransformersPrimacy'', have the ancient city-bots Metroplex and Trypticon imply that the Autobot-Decepticon War comes around on a regular basis. Metroplex even states that the order to hide under Nyon, where Optimus eventually found him, came from ''Optimus himself''.

Also compare GroundhogDayLoop, HistoryRepeats and the ViciousCycle. Has to happen at least ''twice'' (and the more, the better) -- if TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt only happens just once then it doesn't form a loop.

* In ''Film/TheFifthElement'', the evil planet reappears every 5,000 years.

* The last game in the ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngelII'' trilogy has a title that translates into this. A faction called The Will actually try to reset the universe, only to be defeated by the Rune Angel Wing (with their leaders being finished off by the Hyper Weapon of Kazuya's chosen Angel).

** Ragnarok used to do this to Asgard in the MarvelUniverse until Thor broke the cycle.

A major and catastrophic event (normally, TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt) happens not once but on regular basis. It is not the "end" in linear sense, but rather several cycles of endless {{Reincarnation}}--or a ResetButton for the entire universe pressed ''over and over'' again.

* The Fae in ''VideoGame/KingdomsOfAmalurReckoning'' do not truly die like mortals. They are fated to repeat their lives endlessly in the "Great Cycle". The appearance of the Tuatha Deohn, Winter Fae who have managed to break their own Cycle thanks to the power of their new god Tirnoch, is taken as a sign by other Fae that the Cycle is ending.
** One early sidequest even exploits this; as part of the Cycle, certain events repeat themselves, known to the Fae as Ballads. One adventurer works with you to recreate a Ballad, forcing a troll with a valuable ring to appear.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' trilogy, it turns out that [[spoiler: purple dragons]] are supposed to destroy and rebuild the world periodically. The problem is, the last one appointed to the position, [[spoiler: Malefor,]] didn't exactly do his job properly...

* In the final season of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', it's revealed that Pops is an alien and a PhysicalGod, and every 14 billion years the universe is reset during a battle between him and his EvilTwin. [[spoiler: In the SeriesFinale, Pops manages to finally break the cycle by [[HeroicSacrifice killing himself]] [[TakingYouWithMe and his brother]].]]

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', direct parallels are drawn between the events of the current cycle and the previous, Prothean one: Namely, [[spoiler:the extremely late discovery of the Crucible blueprints, the hasty construction, the frantic search for the Catalyst, and, finally, an indoctrinated splinter faction believing they can control the Reapers and sabotaging the Crucible]]. It is further implied that [[spoiler:the Crucible was built in each cycle but much too late to stop the Reapers; the species of the current cycle are the first ones who actually manage to complete the Crucible (sans Catalyst) while preserving most of their forces for the FinalBattle]].

* Universes in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' are eventually destroyed [[spoiler: due to Lord English, but universes are also created constantly due to Skaia. This process of Sburb has no known beginning or end, though the sessions shown in the comic are instrumental to certain conditions perpetuating it. It is implied all universes and reality itself is merely the shape of another, higher being / force known only as Paradox Space, implicitly responsible for the settings [[YouCantFightFate immutable fate]].]]

** As revealed in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'''s ''Shivering Isles'' expansion, in a time before recorded history, Jyggalag, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[ControlFreak Order]] grew too powerful, making the other Daedric Princes fearful and jealous of him. They came together and cursed him, trapping in the form of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of [[MadGod Madness]]. However, at the end of every Era, he is allowed to return to his true form in an event known as the Greymarch. During this time, he retakes and destroys the Shivering Isles, Sheogorath's realm, only to return to the form of Sheogorath at the end. The plot of ''Shivering Isles'' is essentially Jygglag finding a way to escape this ViciousCycle...

* Creator/PercyShelley's poem ''[[http://www.bartleby.com/101/607.html Hellas]]'' imagines the recurrence of classical Greece. (The choice of subject is quite appropriate since cyclical time was a popular hypothesis with ancient Greek philosophers.)

-->-- '''Multiple characters''', ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''; source is ''Literature/PeterPan''

* Happens as an result of CanonWelding between ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'', ''Manga/ViolenceJack'' and ''Manga/DevilmanLady'' -- [[spoiler: the world constantly resets itself and in every new version of it Akira Fudou and Satan reincarnate to fight each other]]. And in ''AMON'' [[spoiler: the world is on an extended version of GroundhogDayLoop, spanning millions of years from Satan's betrayal to Akira's death, so everything that happened once will happen all over again and again.]]

* In the ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'' / ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' crossover ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10853474/1/Cry-for-an-Angel Cry for an Angel]]'', it is eventually revealed that every 6000 years, Minos orders Ikaros to wipe out human civilization and reset history to zero, leaving only enough humans to repopulate, in an attempt to prevent humanity from ever advancing enough to challenge him. Ikaros breaks the cycle by developing free will and rebelling.

* In ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', one of Haruhi's first truly chilling manipulations of reality has to do with this phenomenon. Not wanting to go back to school before experiencing a truly full summer, she forces the cast to repeat the last two weeks of summer vacation. More than 15,000 times. Kyon eventually pieces together his sense of deja vu and asks Yuki what is going on. Yuki, who retains full memory of the situation, tells him that they have repeated the summer over and over again. And how many times have they realized they're stuck in a time loop? Over 8000.

* In Marvel's ''Comicbook/{{EarthX}}'' time is presented as a circle. One day, humanity's mutation will run its course and we will lose our identities to become whatever people think we are or need us to be, then go back in time and become the Asgardians.

* In the mainstream Creator/MarvelUniverse, [[http://tinyurl.com/62ow6l Galactus is the sole survivor of the universe that existed before the Big Bang]] and also the seed for the universe that will come into being when the current one is destroyed.

* In Creator/DavidEddings' ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' and the sequels and prequels, this is used to explain why the same situation tends to reoccur over and over again. This was used partially as a wry acknowledgement of, and excuse for, Creator/DavidEddings' lack of creativity, as he himself admits that he basically wrote it as an attempt to make the most generic fantasy plot of all good. The cycle ''is'' supposed to be broken by the end of the sequel series (the explanation they get for the recurrence is that history can't properly progress so long as there are two Prophecies, so in the meantime patterns recur while the two Prophecies fight it out about which vision of the future should happen. The events of the end of the sequel results in there being only one Prophecy, so now things can start progressing as they should again), but since the only thing that takes place after that is the framing for the prequels this doesn't really matter to the story.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' gives us a writ-small version in a genre of Cardassian literature called the Cyclical Epic. A multi-generational series of characters go through very similar cycles of birth, growing, working for the betterment of the Cardassian regime, and dying as they pass the torch to the next cycle. It also works as a sly metaphor for the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise as a whole, with each iteration having mostly the same premise, but with a new cast of characters exploring the unknown (except, of course, for ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', which mostly ditched the exploration theme).

** ''ComicBook/BeastWarsUprising:'' After the several million years long war between the Autobots and Decepticons, Cybertron falls into a corrupt oligarchy, which eventually prompts another civil war by the oppressed masses. During one story, a character communes with the Oracle, talking about the current war going on, which the Oracle claims is necessary to encourage new growth. It even quotes the ''Peter Pan'' phrase (with the final story suggesting that the "happen again" part is going to happen a hell of a lot sooner than previous instances). There's also a hint that Unicron is also doing this. His thwarted attack on Cybertron in the 21st century is mentioned, but the DistantFinale has a bunch of characters stumbling on some of his essence a very long way from home...

* ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'' builds on the "Big Crunch" theory (see below) with a notable exception: a ''previous'' universe, i.e. one from ''before'' the most recent Big Bang, is trying to prevent ''their'' Big Crunch by teleporting a lot of matter through some kind of time hole into ''our'' universe, in order to prevent the ''next'' universe (which they are at war with) from ever existing. So our Big Crunch gets accelerated, while their is prolonged indefintely. Of course, they didn't count on the teleported matter granting magic powers, ''and'' the ending leaves the whole thing on a Cliffhanger, due to ExecutiveMeddling.

* If you manage to purify all the crystals in ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', what awaits you is [[spoiler:an entire parallel world in which you have to do the entire thing over again]]. This has happened millions of times before, and you can do this process [[spoiler:five]] times [[spoiler:at which point TheDragon has succeeded in her plan to summon her boss into the celestial realm]]. Even with the rematches against the optional bosses being different from their first encounters, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this repetition has not sat well with many players]]. [[spoiler:Thankfully, the sequel downplays this by only having you press the ResetButton once]].

** The premise of ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' is that the destruction wrought by the cycles has all but doomed the world. The world is literally running on embers, the Dark is out of control, and even the boundaries of life and death have broken down. It's suggested that the world may not be able to survive another cycle, [[spoiler:and if you do Link the Fire to continue the cycles, it barely burns at all, a marked contrast to the powerful explosion of fire that happened in the first game, showing that even the linking of the flame that has kept the cycle going is beginning to fail]]. The game also gives you the chance to [[spoiler:break the cycle once and for all, by intentionally snuffing out the First Flame]].

* The last game in the ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngelII'' trilogy has a title that basically translates into this. A faction called The Will actually try to reset the universe, only to be defeated by the Rune Angel Wing (with their leaders being finished off by the Hyper Weapon of Kazuya's chosen Angel).

* The basic premise of ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' canon. Every so many generations a great evil (usually Ganondorf/Ganon) will consume Hyrule, and reincarnations of Link and Zelda will defeat it. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' reveals that this is due to [[spoiler:the curse [[GodOfEvil Demise]] placed on Link and Zelda. An incarnation of his hatred -- Ganon -- will hound Link and Zelda's reincarnated selves until the end of time.]] In the ''Wind Waker'' timeline, [[spoiler:the cycle is apparently broken when everything related to the cycle -- Ganondorf, the Master Sword, and even Hyrule itself -- is returned to the bottom of the ocean forever, though that still doesn't stop a great evil (Bellum and Maladus) from showing up to threaten Link and Zelda in future games set in said timeline.]]