History Main / TheStoryThatNeverWas

* ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth'' and its {{interquel}} ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuthHackersMemory'' end with a CosmicRetcon in which [[TheMagicGoesAway humans and Digimon never met]], [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong fixing many aspects of the world]] but erasing everyone's memories of the bonds they formed with their partners and people they met in their Digimon adventures. In the end, the ''Hacker's Memory'' PlayerCharacter is the [[RippleEffectProofMemory only one who remembers everything]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'' saga, ComicBook/{{Thanos}} managed to get the Infinity Gauntlet, a powerful AppliedPhlebotinum that can modify everything, so he erased the half of sentient life of the universe to please Ms. Death, among other things like defeating the Cosmic Entities of the Main/MarvelUniverse. After the battle against the MadGod, finally [[ComicBook/{{Warlock}} Adam Warlock]] got the infinity Gauntlet from Thanos and used to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong by restoring all the lives lost in the event (not just the ones erased by Thanos, also the deaths of heroes battling Thanos) and also managed to convince everyone in the universe that it was AllJustADream.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', an episode revolves around Francis Grey, a clock-repair man who, because of his family's dire financial straits, stole an expensive watch. This leads to a cavalcade of DisasterDominoes which [[UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime landed him 20 years in prison]]. After developing TimeMaster powers and using them to lash out with an EvilPlan, he accidentally kills his son. Then he supercharges his powers and goes back to the moment before he stole the watch--this time, wisely deciding to just work overtime instead. The episode ends as it began; with the Bat-Family discussing New Years resolutions, but a clock that Alfred had trouble repairing has been fixed by none other than Francis himself. The episode ends less than a few minutes after it chronologically started with Francis returning to his van labelled "Grey and Son, Watch Repair" to spend New Year's with his family.

* ''Series/{{Legion}}'' ends with David's life dramatically altered via time-travel, starting with himself as a baby and onward from there. All the events of the show, including the characters, cease to exist as a result.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Zelda sends Link back to the past after apologizing for his quest preventing him from having a normal childhood. In doing so she actually failed to fully erase everything and [[AlternateTimeline created two timelines]]; one where Link [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker simply vanished from existence after defeating Ganon as an adult]], and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess one where he exposed the conspiracy as a child]]. WordOfGod is that despite being able to live out his childhood, Link retained memories of the events of the plot and lived an unfulfilled life because he never got to be the Hero of Time. However he managed to ease his regrets by passing on his knowledge to his successor as the Hero's Shade in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess''.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/Persona2InnocentSin'', BigBad Nyarlathotep successfully destroys the world, and BigGood Philemon tells the heroes that the only way they can undo it is by undoing them becoming friends when they were children, the "innocent sin" responsible for the entire plot. They accept, but main character Tatsuya ends up retaining his memories, kicking off the plot of the sequel ''VideoGame/Persona2EternalPunishment''.

* In ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'' saga, ComicBook/{{Thanos}} managed to get the Infinity Gauntlet, a powerful AppliedPhlebotinum that can modify everything, so he erased the half of sentient life of the universe to please Ms. Death, among other things like defeating the Cosmic Entities of the Main/MarvelUniverse. After the battle against the MadGod, finally ComicBook/AdamWarlock got the infinity Gauntlet from Thanos and used to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong by restoring all the lives lost in the event (not just the ones erased by Thanos, also the deaths of heroes battling Thanos) and also managed to convince everyone in the universe that it was AllJustADream.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E02TheVisitor The Visitor]]", an aging Jake Sisko explains that when he was a teenager, an accident caused his father to be pulled into subspace, and he's spent decades trying to figure out how to rescue him. He eventually discovers that the only way to prevent his father being lost in subspace forever is to return his father to the moment of the accident so he can avoid it. At the end of the episode, he carries out his plan, the accident is averted, and everything that happened after is {{RetCon}}ned out of existence.

* In the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "I Will Remember You", Angel is turned human by the blood of a demon. Although this would remove the only obstacle to having a happy relationship with Buffy, Angel quickly realizes that he is completely unable to help innocent people without his vampire strength, and convinces ThePowersThatBe to reverse time and undo the events of the day, with only Angel himself remembering them to ensure that things don't play out the exact same way.

* At the climax of the ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode "The Locket", the central characters are forced to use the strange properties of the NegativeSpaceWedgie that they are trapped in to reverse time and change history so that they never entered it. One of the two characters with a RippleEffectProofMemory who remember this feels guilt that they might have erased a number of people who were conceived and born thanks to one of the crew having children on a planet on the other side of the anomaly, but the other speculates that they might have split the timeline instead of erasing it.

** The two-parter "Year of Hell" is also this. ''Voyager'' ventures into a region of space controlled by an enemy, the Krenim, that has the power to change the past by erasing objects or people from history, and after a messy first contact, they find themselves at war with the Krenim. At the climax of the episode, Janeway destroys the mechanism they use to change time, causing it to blow up and erase ''itself'' from history. The final scene of the episode shows them back at the beginning, with the events of the episode never having happened. With the correct balance of power now restored, their first contact with this version of the Krenim is much more civil, and the conflict (and subsequent Year of Hell) is avoided.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "The Visitor", an aging Jake Sisko explains that when he was a teenager, an accident caused his father to be pulled into subspace, and he's spent decades trying to figure out how to rescue him. He eventually discovers that the only way to prevent his father being lost in subspace forever is to return his father to the moment of the accident so he can avoid it. At the end of the episode, he carries out his plan, the accident is averted, and everything that happened after is {{RetCon}}ned out of existence.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' an episode revolves around Francis Grey, a clock-repair man who, because of his family's dire financial straits, stole an expensive watch. This leads to a cavalcade of DisasterDominoes which [[UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime landed him 20 years in prison]]. After developing TimeMaster powers and using them to lash out with an EvilPlan, he accidentally kills his son. Then he supercharges his powers and goes back to the moment before he stole the watch--this time, wisely deciding to just work overtime instead. The episode ends as it began; with the Bat-Family discussing New Years resolutions, but a clock that Alfred had trouble repairing has been fixed by none other than Francis himself. The episode ends less than a few minutes after it chronologically started with Francis returning to his van labelled "Grey and Son, Watch Repair" to spend New Year's with his family.

This can be treated as utterly tragic, since it undoes CharacterDevelopment, and may even be a sadistic choice (the "nail" in question is often some sort of tragedy, such as the protagonist's death, or [[ShootTheDog an innocent party they now have to personally harm]]). Other times it has a slightly more optimistic spin, with it being implied that some of the nicer events that transpired will take place InSpiteOfANail (a slightly awkward scene of the main character befriending a character, especially a LoveInterest, who they no longer know is a popular one). In worse cases, it might even be AllForNothing, with it implied that the catastrophe that was averted could easily happen again (and the next people to experience it might be more selfish).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' an episode revolves around Francis Grey, a clock-repair man who, because of his family's dire financial straits, stole an expensive watch. This leads to a cavalcade of DisasterDominoes which [[UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime landed him 20 years in prison]]. After developing TimeMaster powers and using them to lash out with an EvilPlan, he accidentally kills his son. Then he supercharges his powers and goes back to the moment before he stole the watch--this time, wisely deciding to just work overtime instead. The episode ends as it began; with the Bat-Family discussing New Years resolutions, but a clock that Alfred had trouble repairing has been fixed by none other than Francis himself. The episode ends less than a few minutes after it chronologically started with Francis returning to his van labelled "Grey and Son, Watch Repair" to spend Christmas with his family.

* ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2'' is all a computer simulation to retrain everyone to be better people. Well, at least that was the plan before Monokuma showed up and hijacked everything. A large part of the finale is about how to proceed with the situation, either undoing it all or letting the villain win. Despite all intents and plans, the reset turns out to ''somehow'' allow everyone to retain their memories and character developments, despite the timeline being thrown out.

* Lewis Robinson of ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'' discovers the far future is an [[BadFuture ugly]] {{dystopia}} where humanity is a SlaveRace to mechanized overlords. Learning that it's one of his inventions that went rogue and begat this dystopia, Lewis gives a DeathGlare to the CyberCyclops BigBad and delivers the scathing PreMortemOneLiner "... and I'm not inventing you!" Whereupon the device dissolves from existence, just before Lewis exploits the TimeyWimeyBall to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.

* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'':
** In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' episode "[[Recap/TheFlash2014S1E15OutOfTime Out of Time]]", Captain Singh is critically injured, Joe has been kidnapped by Mark Mardon and is also critically injured, Cisco figures out Wells' true identity and is killed for it, Barry and Iris confess their love for each other and Barry reveals to her that he is the Flash, and Mark Mardon creates a huge tidal wave to engulf Central City. When attempting to stop the tidal wave, Barry {{time travel}}s to earlier in the day before any of this happened and is able to prevent these events in the [[Recap/TheFlash2014S1E16RogueTime next episode]] by finding Mardon and locking him up before he can cause any harm.
** In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', the Legends spend most of season 2 trying to keep TheSpearOfDestiny out of the hands of the LegionOfDoom, but ultimately they fail and the Legion uses the Spear to rewrite reality. Even trapped within the Legion's Doomworld reality, the Legends make a final attempt to steal back the spear and undo the damage, only for Eobard Thawne to destroy the spear itself. The Legends then reason that the only way to repair reality is to stop the Legion from getting the Spear to begin with, so they travel back in time across their own personal history (a DangerousForbiddenTechnique) to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI where the Legion had first acquired the completed Spear. In a FinalBattle of the Legends teaming up with their past selves to face the Legion, all of the future Legends end up being killed with the exception of Sara. Sara then uses the Spear's reality powers to disable its own reality warping ''before'' the Legion would use it, thus preventing the Legion from ever creating the Doomworld to begin with and restoring reality to its correct nature, but also [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaking time in the process]].

* In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', the Legends spend most of season 2 trying to keep TheSpearOfDestiny out of the hands of the LegionOfDoom, but ultimately they fail and the Legion uses the Spear to rewrite reality. Even trapped within the Legion's Doomworld reality, the Legends make a final attempt to steal back the spear and undo the damage, only for Eobard Thawne to destroy the spear itself. The Legends then reason that the only way to repair reality is to stop the Legion from getting the Spear to begin with, so they travel back in time across their own personal history (a DangerousForbiddenTechnique) to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI where the Legion had first acquired the completed Spear. In a FinalBattle of the Legends teaming up with their past selves to face the Legion, all of the future Legends end up being killed with the exception of Sara. Sara then uses the Spear's reality powers to disable its own reality warping ''before'' the Legion would use it, thus preventing the Legion from ever creating the Doomworld to begin with and restoring reality to its correct nature, but also [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaking time in the process]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'' saga, ComicBook/{{Thanos}} managed to get the Infinity Gauntlet, a powerful AppliedPhlebotinum that can modify everything, so he erased the half of sentient life of the universe to please Ms. Death, among other things like defeating the Cosmic Entities of the ComicBook/MarvelUniverse. After the battle against the MadGod, finally ComicBook/AdamWarlock got the infinity Gauntlet from Thanos and used to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong by restoring all the lives lost in the event (not just the ones erased by Thanos, also the deaths of heroes battling Thanos) and also managed to convince everyone in the universe that it was AllJustADream.

* Lewis Robinson of ''Disney/MeetTheRobinsons'' discovers the far future is an [[BadFuture ugly]] {{dystopia}} where humanity is a SlaveRace to mechanized overlords. Learning that it's one of his inventions that went rogue and begat this dystopia, Lewis gives a DeathGlare to the CyberCyclops BigBad and delivers the scathing PreMortemOneLiner "... and I'm not inventing you!" Whereupon the device dissolves from existence, just before Lewis exploits the TimeyWimeyBall to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.

** The two-parter "Year of Hell" is also this. ''Voyager'' ventures into a region of space controlled by an enemy, the Krenim, that has the power to change the past by erasing objects or people from history, and after a messy first contact, they find themselves at war with the Krenim. At the climax of the episode, Janeway destroys the mechanism they use to change time, causing it to blow up and erase ''itself'' from history. The final scene of the episode shows them back at the beginning, with the events of the episode now erased from history. With the correct balance of power now restored, their first contact with this version of the Krenim is much more civil, and the conflict (and subsequent Year of Hell) is avoided.

* The sixth season of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'', Skybound, ends in this when Jay uses his final wish from [[JackassGenie Nadakhan]] to make it so that no one ever released Nadakhan in the first place. Nadakhan, who is forced to oblige and is unable to twist Jay's words due to being weakened from Tiger Widow venom, grants this wish, and everything reverts to the way it was at the beginning of the season (with the exception that Jay and Nya retain their memories of the experience).