History Main / NoOntologicalInertia

[[folder:Comics]]
* Particularly aggravating when mutants (in the {{Marvel}} universe) lose their powers and (in general) turn human. That is, you might have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Newxmen125.jpg looked like this]] as a mutant, but once you're cured, you get an instant human body. Almost as if you had never been a mutant in the first place.
** As briefly touched upon above though, it's only a general rule. Chamber, a mutant whose explosion/fire/whatever powers blew off his lower face and chest, had to be put on a life support when his powers disappeared. It seems it doesn't count if it was an indirect effect of their powers, or [[RuleOfDrama if it will cause something even shittier to happen to the character.]]

* Averted in an interesting way in ''JudgeDredd''. In the earliest years of the comic (those set in the 2100s) there has been a prophesied doom that would strike in 2120. Judges Dredd and Anderson used an experimental time machine to travel to the future where they find the cause, a psychic entity of huge power known as The Mutant, travel back in time and prevent it coming to pass. However the Zombie Dredd of the future that The Mutant had unleashed to torment Dredd had come back with them. It has become deanimated, but the fact remained that there was now a 13-year-older Judge Dredd corpse in the Black Museum. [[spoiler:This being Judge Dredd, it came alive again and ran amok 12 years later, just in time to get everyone nervous about the old prophecy again.]]

* Averted in ''LoneWolf''. After the Darklords are defeated, the lands that they corrupted in their campaign of conquest are ''still'' corrupted. The intro pages of the Grandmaster series reveal that the Elder Magi and the Herbwardens are working to restore the Darklands to their original states, but realize that it will take ''centuries'' of effort to undo the damage.
** But played straight in [[spoiler:Books 6 and 17]]. In the case of [[spoiler:Book 6, killing the ancient Dakomyd causes it to instantly decay and turn to dust]]. In the case of [[spoiler:Book 17, destroying the Deathlord Ixiataaga removes the power that kept the city of Xaagon in a suspended state, causes the entire city to collapse, breaks the cloud cover that prevented sunlight from reaching it, and "shuts down" all of Ixiataaga's undead minions]].

* Used heartbreakingly in ''Manga/DeathNote'', where the death of VillainProtagonist [[WellIntentionedExtremist Light]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Yagami]] pretty much undoes everything he worked and sacrificed for during the entire story; that is, the human wickedness he went insane [[HeWhoFightsMonsters trying to fight]] comes right back, nobody learned anything, and nobody was saved. People just... forget about him. Life goes on. The whole thing turns into a horrific, bloody ShootTheShaggyDog; sadly, this is probably TruthInTelevision.

* In a way, this happened with the Mongol armies. Mongol tradition stated that if the khan died, everyone had to drop what they were doing and go home to mourn the khan and bury him. Thus, whoever they happened to be attacking at the time would suddenly find the Mongols leaving or gone. Western Europe got VERY lucky when the rather young khan died of a heart attack, saving it from being [[CurbStompBattle being run over like most of Eastern Europe]].

** ''Film/BatmanReturns'': As soon as Batman has saved Selina Kyle from her kidnapper (by smacking him in the back of the head with a chunk of concrete) during the terrorist attack on Gotham Plaza, not only does the "action music" on the soundtrack immediately stop, but the crowds stop running and screaming and everything becomes peaceful again - even though Selina's kidnapper was not the leader of the gang or even a prominent member of it, and immediately before the kidnapper is knocked out we could see other gang members running around in the background where Batman couldn't easily stop them, and apparently in no danger of being nabbed by the police.

* In ''Disney/TheLionKing'', Scar's death immediately brings rain back to the Pridelands and repairs a completely devastated ecosystem in what appears to be a few months.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Secret of My Excess", Spike grows into a larger dragon progressively over the course of the episode, until by the end he is a rampaging dragon the size of a small mountain. During the conclusion of this story the rampage stops and Spike immediately, and magically, poofs back to his original size instead of gradually growing back to his original size in reverse.
** This is quite common in the show, due to it's episodic nature. Parasprites, Derpy Hooves, Spike, and Trixie have all laid waste to some or all of Ponyville in the past, and by the very next episode, it's fixed with absolutely no mention of the event.

** VideoGame/ChronoTrigger also has an interesting version of this trope after the Ocean Palace, where even if [[spoiler:the party loses the fight against Lavos]], the damage done by the party causes [[spoiler:the FloatingContinent of Zeal to come crashing down]]

* Averted in ''{{Disgaea 2}}'': [[AllThereInTheManual According to the art book]], even with the death of [[spoiler:The fake Xenon]], Veldime will in fact remain a netherworld. The people will remain Demons, the monsters that were attracted to the world under Xenon's influence will not leave, And while the landscape's transformation ''has'' been halted, what had already been changed will remain so. The book does go on to say however, that since Xenon is no longer [[spoiler:draining the morality and consciences out of the people]], they will at least stop turning evil, and points out that many changes brought to Veldime as a Netherworld were in fact positive, so things still work out in the end.

!!Examples

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

Writers often forget about this for some reason, and assume that the ''creator'' of a thing maintains some sort of existential tie to the thing created, and his continued survival is necessary. That is, if the creator is destroyed, it is "only natural" that the creation will pop out of existence, or preferably, [[StuffBlowingUp explode]].

OntologicalInertia is the tendency stuff has to continue being stuff. Things, in general, keep existing even when we're not looking at them.

* An interesting variation of this trope is used in AlanDeanFoster's ''HumanXCommonwealth'' series as the power source of a superweapon, called "[[{{Technobabble}} Fixed Cosmic Inertia]]". Basically, the device is placed in a stasis field that means that, no matter what happens to it, the major part of it continues to exist at the moment in space and time that it was originally built. When the weapon is triggered, the "rubber band" effect snaps the weapon to the present, translating all the accumulated energy into a single point in spacetime. The results are [[EarthShatteringKaboom quite spectacular]].

* Takes on another form in online games that utilize "lag compensation," notably [[{{FPS}} first-person shooters]]. Suppose two combatants fire upon each other, one with a plasma gun, another with a rocket launcher. From each player's perspective, the other hasn't yet fired; meanwhile, on the server, the rounds pass each other by mid-flight. The plasma bolts, having faster velocity, hit their target first for lethal damage. Should the rocket launch and plasma death occur within the lag compensation window (usually around 1/10th of a second), the rocket "was never fired," and the plasma gunner gets an easy kill. Outside the window, the plasma gunner still has to dodge the rocket. This phenomenon also causes hastily-flung grenades to disappear, and assault rifle victims to apparently die from one or two bullets rather than the five to nine they have to hit anyone else with for a kill. On a related theme, some weapons "charge up" by holding fire, and launch when their button is released. Killing players during the charge up sequence often causes the super-attack to instantly dissipate rather than either launching at that instant (or wildly).

** But averted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]''. You kill the spider that lives in the Deku tree, but it's too late to save the tree...

** And on the more meta side, the game takes lag into consideration when calculating whether or not a hit has registered, resulting in the phenomenon of the 200+ ping Sniper whose bullets seem to curve around corners and drop opponents who have moved out of his effective range.

* TimBurton's ''{{Batman}}'' films have some of this.
** Immediately after the scene confirming TheJoker's death in the 1989 film, Commissioner Gordon appears at a press conference and announces: "Our police have rounded up all of the Joker's men." However, we saw at least two members of the Joker's gang (or three, counting the unseen pilot) [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere escaping in a helicopter at the time of their boss's demise]]. [[AllThereInTheScript The shooting script]] implies that [[TheCavalry a police helicopter showed up at the cathedral and quickly captured the escapees]], but the movie itself leaves this unresolved. Of course, it's possible that [[DespairEventHorizon those three guys were so distraught by their boss's death that they didn't see any point in not surrendering]].
** ''BatmanReturns'': As soon as Batman has rescued Selina Kyle from her kidnapper (by smacking him in the back of the head with a chunk of concrete) during the terrorist attack on Gotham Plaza, not only does the "action music" on the soundtrack immediately stop, but the crowds stop running and screaming and everything becomes peaceful again - even though Selina's kidnapper was not the leader of the gang or even a prominent member of it, and immediately before the kidnapper is knocked out we could see other gang members running around in the background where Batman couldn't easily stop them, and apparently in no danger of being nabbed by the police.
** Another ''Batman Returns'' example: The Penguin [[FrameUp makes Batman appear to be a criminal]] by kidnapping a young woman and then leaving a (stolen) Batarang at the scene of the crime, and then frightening the girl off the edge of a building in full view of a huge crowd below just as Batman is holding out his hands to save her, thus making it appear that he pushed her; meanwhile, the Penguin's gang are somehow able to hack into the Batmobile's security system and install electronic devices that enable the Penguin to manipulate Batman's car by remote control, making it drive around wildly so that it looks like Batman is trying to run over innocent people. But once Batman has in turn destroyed the Penguin's reputation by [[EngineeredPublicConfession playing a recording of his villainous rants over the loudspeakers while the Penguin is giving a speech]], he is apparently exonerated of the kidnapping, the murder, and the wild driving, even though there's no reason why he should be. Nobody attributes these crimes to the Penguin afterward; and not only do they cease to be important, but they are never mentioned again in the course of the film.
** However, JoelSchumacher's ''BatmanAndRobin'' (the only pre-Nolan ''Batman'' film made without Burton's involvement) subverts this trope, and sensibly so: Mr. Freeze turns people into semi-permanent human icebergs with his cold gun, so even after he is gone the victims must be thawed out within a matter of minutes, or they will die. Even when Freeze is defeated and captured at the movie's climax, tension remains as Batman, Robin, and Batgirl still have to use Wayne Enterprise's new satellite system to reflect sunlight from the other side of the world (it's currently nighttime in North America) to thaw out Gotham City before thousands of people die.

See also LiquidAssets and NoImmortalInertia -- though these are more about LifeEnergy, they still represent states that can be easily restored to "normal". This is a type of ResetButton. Logically, this is one of the primary justifications for [[LoadBearingBoss Load Bearing Bosses]] and [[CollapsingLair Collapsing Lairs]]. Contrast OffscreenInertia.

See also LiquidAssets and NoImmortalInertia -- though these are more about LifeEnergy, they still represent states that can be easily restored to "normal". This is a type of ResetButton. Logically, this is one of the primary justifications for [[LoadBearingBoss Load Bearing Bosses]] and [[CollapsingLair Collapsing Lairs]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales: [[TheMovie Treasure of the Lost Lamp]]'': when the genie is made a real boy and thus de-powered, Dijon (who had been transformed into a pig from a wish by the BigBad) is restored to normal.
** In another episode, a magical golden duck artifact with the power to turn things into gold has unleashed a magic wave that is turning the world into gold. Scrooge and the guy who accidently started the whole thing are rushing to return the artifact to the shrine fountain it came from. They eventually reach the shrine just ahead of the magic effect and throw the duck into the water even as they're turned to gold too... and then everything is returned to normal.