Line #16 Main/RelationshipResetButton


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6	They've been doing the WillTheyOrWontThey dance for a while, or maybe they've always been StarCrossedLovers. Now finally they've actually [[RelationshipUpgrade gotten together]]. What does this mean? It means that something's about to happen so that for one--and only one--of them, their relationship never happened. Usually that "something" will either be a form of EasyAmnesia, a suspiciously convenient CosmicRetcon combined with RippleEffectProofMemory, or some brand of LiteralSplitPersonality.
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8	This can be a useful if {{Wangst}}-ridden way of ensuring that StatusQuoIsGod while still [[ShipTease throwing a bone to fans who want to see their favorite couple together]]. A relationship that ''neither'' party remembers might also fulfill those conditions, but is also much more likely to be subjected to [[FridgeLogic nagging doubts]] of the "[[LawOfConservationOfDetail Why does it matter that this happened at all?]]" variety.
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10	If a character knows this is going to happen, she may leave a NoteToSelf.
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12	Compare ThatDidntHappen, where the characters are only pretending by mutual agreement that they weren't involved. Not to be confused with RelationshipReboot, when two characters who have been antagonistic or deceptive towards one another agree to start over as if from scratch.
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14	----
15	!!Examples:
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder: Anime And Manga]]
20	* In the ''Manga/{{Area 88}}'' manga, Shin leaves Ryoko before their wedding to stop Kanzaki and Project 4 in Asran. After sustaining injuries in an aerial duel with Kanzaki, Shin has amnesia and cannot remember the events of the previous few years. His amnesia resets his relationship with Ryoko, who reunites with him in the last manga issue.
21	* In ''Literature/CheatMagicianLifeThatStartedFromBeingJudgedUseless'', the main character Kento Kokubu and Camilla Rosenberg start off as enemies, since the latter summoned him and over 200 of his schoolmates and teachers to use as cannon-fodder in reclaiming a monster-filled forest, considered him "useless" and all but ''orders him to die.'' Over half a year later, she's gone through a great deal of grief trying to make up for her villainy, sworn her fealty, and demonstrated that she genuinely loves him, after he '''repeatedly''' rescued her people, despite having every reason to see them as nothing but enemies, and Kent forgives her. [[spoiler: Then Kent learns that one of his female school-mates was repeatedly raped by Camilla's knights, because the girl was pregnant.]] The only reason Kent doesn't go back to wanting her dead is that she didn't know, because the knights who did kept quiet.
22	* ''Manga/GaRei'' gives EasyAmnesia to Kagura after Kensuke rescues her from the [[EldritchAbomination Kyubi]].
23	* Subverted in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar''. [[spoiler:Shortly after her first kiss with Shirogane, Kaguya reverts to the cold IceQueen personality that she had back when they first met. While this initially seems like they've gone back to square one, she's actually trying to ''advance'' their relationship as she believes that dating means being able to accept all of your partner's flaws and craves proof that Shirogane loves even the ugliest parts of her personality. Finding a middle ground between this and Shirogane's belief that people should only be at their best around their significant other proves to be the final hurdle that the two have to overcome before they finally have a RelationshipUpgrade.]]
24	* The ''Ruby/Sapphire'' arc of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' ends with [[spoiler:Ruby seemingly forgetting his entire relationship development with Sapphire, presumably as an effect of Celebi's warping of time. However, this is played with as the following arc (''Emerald'') implies at several points that he does remember and is lying to Sapphire]]. It's vaguely justified as Ruby is 12. How many 12 year olds do you know want to be in a committed romantic relationship? In the sequel arc set a few years later, ''[=OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire=]'', [[spoiler:he finally openly admits his feelings after his aloofness nearly ruins things between them]].
25	* The first season of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' ends with everyone losing their memories of everything relating to the Moon Kingdom and their time as heroes, including Mamoru forgetting his relationship with Usagi. Usagi remembers everything before anyone else in the next season, leading to her having restart their relationship from scratch.
26	* In ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'', when [[spoiler:Okabe sacrifices his love interest Kurisu to save Mayuri's life by going back to the Beta world line where Kurisu was killed instead. Subverted in that after Okabe fulfills the mission his future self gave him, he saves Beta!Kurisu and she gradually gains her Alpha memory back]].
27	* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': The Dark Signer arc placed quite a bit of focus on the development of the relationship between [[TheRival Jack]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Atlas]] and [[IntrepidReporter Carly]] [[CuteClumsyGirl Nagisa]], going as far as [[spoiler: mutual {{Love Confession}}s and ''attempted'' TogetherInDeath when Carly dies and [[BackFromTheDead becomes]] a [[LoveMakesYouEvil Dark]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Signer]] and Jack is [[KillTheOnesYouLove forced to kill her.]] At the end of the season, however, a DeusExMachina [[DeathIsCheap brings Carly back to life]], [[LaserGuidedAmnesia stripping her of her memories]] of her time as a Dark Signer in the process.]] Their relationship is never developed or brought up again in the later arcs--Carly is reduced to PluckyComicRelief on the same level of significance as the other {{Fan Girl}}s in Jack's newly-acquired harem, and Jack essentially ignores her for the rest of the series, as if he forgot the whole thing, too. No wonder the shippers are mad.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Comic Books]]
31	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': The ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' storyline does this to Peter and Mary Jane. A rare case of all parties having it wiped from their memories. And yes, it's as stupid as it sounds.
32	** ''ComicBook/OneMomentInTime'' later clarifies exactly what happened, and it's ''even stupider''. History changed so they never got married, but in its place, they still had a serious monogamous relationship. Really, the only effect was a change in terminology; Mary Jane is now the "ex-girlfriend" Peter "broke up" with, not the "ex-wife" he "divorced".
33	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': This was part of the premise for Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Superman 2000'' proposal: Clark would have to give up his marriage with Lois to a supernatural being in order to save her life, and only he would remember it ever happened.
34	** Why does that [[ComicBook/OneMoreDay sound familiar]]...?
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36
37	[[folder:Fan Works]]
38	* The fifth story of the ''Fanfic/FacingTheFutureSeries'' has Nocturne doing this to Danny and Sam by trapping them in a dream world where they didn't remember each other. Let's just say they weren't happy with him when they woke up.
39	* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' fic ''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20120420113339/http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7116550/1/Heroes Heroes]]'' is the literal definition of this trope. In the first chapter Roxanne discovers that Megamind has taken his own life, which makes her feel guilty about her captor/damsel relationship with him; because she could have saved him from a life of villainy back in high school, but chose not to because it would ruin her reputation. But then she finds a reset button he created in his lair, and presses it - which resets everything, and she finds herself waking up as a seventeen-year-old again with another chance to save him. [[spoiler:The story ends with the two of them in a romantic relationship.]]
40	* ''Fanfic/NotThisTimeFate'': Jaune is trapped in a GroundhogPeggySue loop; by the time the story proper begins, he's gone through the same events ''hundreds of times''. Repeatedly going through hell with his TrueCompanions, only to lose everything he's built with them by being sent back to the past... and that's not getting into all the times he lost them ''before'' the reset due to things [[BadFuture going horribly wrong]].
41	* In the ''Manga/TokyoBabylon'' fic series, ''Fanfiction/NukumeDori''; Subaru has his memories sealed and can't recall anything involving Seishirou, so he has to enamour Subaru once again. The thing is Subaru managed to deduce Seishirou is the Sakurazukmori, so it's no use trying to put any mask. Despite being a complicated situation, Seishirou is grateful of this: he doesn't have hide who he is, and he doesn't have a timelimit this time.
42	* ''Fanfic/ReflectionsLostOnADarkRoad'': To make a long story short, throughout the previous fic (''Fanfic/DarkTitans'') Ryoga Hibiki had started to build a loving relationship with both Raven from the Teen Titans and Jinx of the HIVE Academy, even having the latter making a HeelFaceTurn... and then the both of them arrive to the AlternateUniverse of ''Fanfic/TheRoadToCydonia'', where Raven's powers work differently and she eventually becomes DrunkOnTheDarkSide.. during which she ends up removing Jinx's love of Ryoga via MindRape and Ryoga, sickened at something he thinks was the crossing of the MoralEventHorizon, deciding to dump Raven.
43	* In ''Fanfic/WhereTheLightHides'', Aria's memories of her relationship with Izuku are forcibly erased by her stalker, leaving them to start over after she's rescued.
44	[[/folder]]
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46	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
47	* After finally being able to talk to Tony, ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2'' starts with him accidentally seeing Violet without her mask. [[spoiler:Hoping to correct the situation, Bob asks Dicker to wipe his memory of ever seeing her true identity, [[GoneHorriblyWrong only for the process to wipe all memory he has of her]].]] She eventually reestablishes a relationship with him after a few bad first impressions along the way, even managing to set up a date at the theater like the first time.
48	[[/folder]]
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50	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
51	* ''Film/FiftyFirstDates'': Lucy suffers from EasyAmnesia, every time she sleeps her memory resets to the morning of the accident that caused her amnesia. Since she didn't meet Henry until after the accident this means that every day she forgets who he is. Luckily Henry, who was a ladies' man before he met her, enjoys coming up with new ways to win her over every day.
52	* The ending of ''Film/TheButterflyEffect''. The time-resetting hero knows that no matter what he does, his girlfriend will always be miserable if she's with him, so he goes back to his childhood and scares her off. Years later, he crosses her in the street, but of course she has no idea who he is. In the alternate ending he went back in time and committed suicide in the womb, causing his own miscarriage, so they would never meet!
53	* ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' is arguably all about this, as it's about selective memory alteration to forget people -- [[spoiler:which conveniently turns out to mean that the two main characters, both having erased their memories of the other after a bad break-up, meet each other and begin the same process over again]].
54	* In the second-to-last GroundhogDayLoop of ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'', Cage and Rita share a single kiss, right before they die. Then the loop resets, the aliens are defeated, and Cage is the only one who remembers what happened... and the movie ends just as he meets her again.
55	* In ''Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', Jacob and Queenie spend most of the movie flirting, but magical law requires that he have his memory erased at the end. She visits him in his new bakery at the very end, suggesting that their relationship might continue in some form.
56	* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
57	** "Star Lord" Peter Quill and Gamora spend the [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014 first]] [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 two]] ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' films growing closer, culminating in the reveal in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' that they've had an offscreen RelationshipUpgrade. Then [[AbusiveParents Thanos]] reluctantly murders his "favorite" daughter Gamora. In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', unlike everyone who was killed by Thanos's snap, Gamora's death is ''not'' undone and she's KilledOffForReal; however, the Gamora from an alternate timeline before she ever met and fell in love with Quill ends up migrating to the "prime" timeline, meaning there's the possibility that Quill can be with her again someday, but will have to start over with romancing her, since she's the SameCharacterButDifferent.
58	** At the ending of ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'', Peter has to fix all the damage he's done (and that Mysterio did in the previous movie) by [[spoiler:having Doctor Strange use his magic to make everyone in every universe forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man to prevent Spider-Man's enemies from different timelines/universes from endangering his own. This also has the effect of causing everyone in the world to forget that Peter ''[[UnPerson even exists]]''--including his girlfriend Michelle "MJ" Jones and his best friend Ned--and all records of him are erased from reality. Peter promises them before they lose their memories that he will [[IWillFindYou find them again]] to re-forge their relationship, but this is subverted when he sees them both safe and relatively content in their new lives without him and can't bring himself to go through with it and potentially endanger them again, just leaving instead.]]
59	* The French film ''Film/AVeryLongEngagement'' is about a woman who tries to find out what happened to her fiancé after he is seemingly killed in World War I. At the end she discovers that he has amnesia and doesn't know who she is but it is implied that she will stay with him because he is still the same person sans memory and she still loves him.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Literature]]
63	* In ''[[Literature/NurseryCrime The Fourth Bear]]'' by Jasper Fforde, Mary and Ashley go out on a date and have a great deal of fun, even though [[OppositesAttract Ashley's an alien]]. At the climax of the book, Ashley pulls a HeroicSacrifice to stop a van-full of nuclear cucumbers from destroying Reading. As an alien, he has his memories backed up, so he [[DisneyDeath gets better]]; as he was careless about backing himself up, though, he loses the last two weeks of his life, including the date.
64	* In ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'' by Creator/NeilGaiman, Scarlett is given a choice to forget about Bod and everything that happened, and chooses to forget. Although they were never actually more than friends, she's the first human person that Bod has a relationship with.
65	* In ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' by Tad Williams, Paul Jonas and Martine Desroubins fall in love while inside the eponymous computer simulation. At the climax, they learn that he's actually an [[BrainUploading uploaded]] copy of the "real" Paul Jonas; the book ends with Martine meeting the real Paul Jonas and telling him about his dear friends who he hasn't met yet.
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68	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
69	* ''Series/{{Angel}}''
70	** In the episode "[[Recap/AngelS01E08IWillRememberYou I Will Remember You]]", in which Angel turns human just as Buffy comes to town, so they can spend the day eating peanut butter in bed (and incidentally having lots of sex). It ends up being a disaster, and he needs to beg the PowersThatBe for a do-over. Angel remembers; Buffy doesn't.
71	** A non-romantic example takes place at the end of season 4, where Angel agrees to take over the LA branch of Wolfram & Hart in exchange for everyone (except him) forgetting about his son Connor, who is given a normal life.
72	* ''{{Series/Eureka}}'' likes to play around with this.
73	** Future!Carter, who's married to Alison, ends up in the present; ironically, his overfamiliarity with her leads to them not actually getting together. [[spoiler:He eventually gets his memories wiped.]]
74	** Similarly, the main cast eventually winds up in a timeline where Henry is married to Grace, whom he barely knows. Unusually for this trope, since Henry is the much more major character, we see their subsequent relationship from the perspective of the one who ''doesn't'' remember, and don't actually get to see the parts that Grace knows about and Henry doesn't.
75	** As an effect of the same timeline shift, Jo (who shifted) now finds that Zane (who didn't) never dated her and in fact hates her, while in her home timeline, he'd just proposed, and she'd waffled, when the shift happened.
76	** "One Small Step" has a subversion which has nothing to do with altered timelines. [[GeniusLoci S.A.R.A.H.]] is in an accident; after repairing her, Fargo says some of her memory might have been irreparably lost, and there's no way to know what. When her beau Deputy Andy walks in, there's a long awkward pause, and then S.A.R.A.H. says she'd forgotten... that nobody could actually see her smile.
77	* Season 3 of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' sees Crichton [[LiteralSplitPersonality split into two identical copies]], with alternate episodes tracking each copy. One of them gets into a serious relationship with Aeryn, so he's the one that has to die before the two plotlines can converge again. They do work things out in the end, though...
78	* Happens in ''{{Series/Fringe}}'' multiple times. Just before their first date, Olivia realizes that Peter is [[spoiler:from the alternate universe]] which freaks them both out and causes Peter to leave. Then, they finally get together, except that "Olivia" is actually her doppelganger undercover. Once Olivia deals with that, they start a relationship until Peter [[spoiler:is erased from the timeline, causing Olivia to forget he even existed]].
79	* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'':
80	** Happens to [[spoiler:Chidi and Eleanor]] two times that we see: once at the end of season two when [[spoiler:the humans are sent back to earth]], and once at the end of season three when [[spoiler:Chidi's memory is wiped so that he won't remember]] [[spoiler:Simone]]. Also happens several times offscreen in [[spoiler: a significant number of Michael's reboots]].
81	** Also happens with [[spoiler:Jason]], who forgets their marriage to [[spoiler:Janet]] after [[spoiler:the first reboot]].
82	* Used as a RunningGag on ''Series/SevenDays''. Every time Frank would make romantic headway with Olga, circumstances would require him to travel back in time to before the positive interaction, and then he'd be unable to replicate it.
83	* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
84	** The episode "Unending" provides a subtle (and possibly [[WordOfSaintPaul deuterocanonical]]) example. Teal'c is the only one who remembers the events of the episode; it's not explicit in the script, but the actors have said they tried to play the episode so as to imply a relationship between Teal'c and Sam during it. It's also very explicit that Daniel and Vala's ShipTease stopped being just tease, and implied that Vala got pregnant but miscarried, but the ending's quite literal reset button brought them back to the WillTheyOrWontThey stage.
85	** "Window of Opportunity" has an extremely compressed version. O'Neill is stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop and the only people who remember it are him, Teal'c, and the antagonist of the week; during one iteration of the loop, he takes the opportunity to resign his commission for the express purpose of kissing Carter without violating regulations.
86	** In "Past and Present", Daniel's GirlOfTheWeek turns out to be a previous episode's villain, courtesy of a FountainOfYouth and some EasyAmnesia. When she remembers who she really is at the end of the episode, she decides to undergo the amnesia again rather than revert back to villainy, forgetting her romance with Daniel as a side-effect.
87	* "Unforgettable" from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' manages to arrange a relationship where this happens to both parties in quick succession.
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90	[[folder:Video Games]]
91	* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', Freya's love, Sir Fratley, is wounded in battle and forgets who she is. Although she does eventually meet up with him again, he still doesn't know her.
92	[[/folder]]
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94	[[folder:Western Animation]]
95	* On ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' Stan accidentally erases Francine's memory of the last twenty years when he meant to only erase the last twenty hours, due to [[ForgottenAnniversary forgetting the anniversary]]. The rest of the episode is about him trying to woo her again in the hope that it will restore her memory.
96	* At the beginning of season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' when [[spoiler:Desiree wipes everyone's memories and Danny forgets who Sam is]].
97	* In a ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode this happens to Fry and Leela as a result of 'time skips' that cause bubbles of time where people will act normally but have no memory of the events afterwards. They find themselves at the altar just as their marriage ceremony is concluding, with no idea of how they got there. Leela is furious and assumes that Fry somehow tricked her into the marriage, while Fry is left desperately trying to remember what he had done to win her around. He finally finds evidence of his GrandRomanticGesture, [[DownerEnding just as it is destroyed forever before Leela can see it]].
98	* ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'': One episode seems to be building up a relationship between Hercules and Megara. But as the show is a prequel to the movie, they both get hit with memory-erasing water in the end.
99	* This temporarily happens in the PostScriptSeason of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', following Kim and Ron's RelationshipUpgrade. A malfunctioning memory recovering device causes Kim to experience LaserGuidedAmnesia and forget everything about her life. Over time, she gradually begins to recover her memories, however the ''very last'' thing it takes time for her to remember is that she and Ron had become a couple at the end of the previous school year, to Ron's utter frustration.
100	* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. In the second season, Korra has a loud argument with her boyfriend Mako in the middle of a police station and breaks up with him. Shortly after, she's attacked by a dark spirit and gets amnesia. While she is able to recover most of her memories, one thing she doesn't recall is the break-up, leading her to kiss Mako upon reuniting with him a few episodes later. After telling him about the memory loss, Mako chooses to lie to her and assures her that their romance is still going strong, [[WhatTheHellHero to the judgmental stares of everyone around them]]. ''Especially'' Asami, with whom Mako had been rekindling a relationship with while Korra was gone.
101	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had an episode like this, only Marge wound up forgetting her entire ten-year marriage to Homer, even after she recovered memories of everything else about the last decade (the kids, etc.)
102	** Though throughout the episode Marge only remembers people because something deeply associated with their character is either demonstrated or mentioned and until Homer mentioned his love of drinking he was a complete unknown to her.
103	[[/folder]]

Context Main / RelationshipResetButton