Line #41 Main/ResetButtonSuicideMission


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3	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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7	->'''Anyanka:''' You trusting fool! How do you know the other world is any better than this?\
8	'''Giles:''' Because it has to be.
9	-->-- ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E9TheWish The Wish]]"
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11	A major disaster strikes: Cthulhu stomps through a gate, a critical bulwark to civilization is destroyed, or [[CosmicKeystone some person central to reality is killed]]. Whatever caused it, it's TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. The lead characters have a plan for how to unwind time to fix it: building a TimeMachine, performing a magic ritual, or something similar. In the process of pursuing the necessary {{MacGuffin}}s and dodging {{mooks}}, [[DwindlingParty the ranks of our heroes dwindle]], but [[HeroicSacrifice they lay down their lives willingly]], knowing that as long as the plan succeeds everything will be put back... including them. That foreknowledge of the coming reset is key to this trope.
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13	This is a [[JustForFun/{{Troperithmetic}} mashup]] of ResetButton and SuicideMission, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin obviously enough]]. In general this is also a subset of DwindlingParty, though it's possible that the characters may sacrifice themselves as a group. In contrast with ClimacticBattleResurrection, where the return of deceased characters to life is the prelude to a massive battle, in many cases of this trope nobody has any idea anything happened after the original disaster is undone. However, don't be surprised if some characters have RippleEffectProofMemory to remember it all in the end.
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15	Related to ExpendableAlternateUniverse; in this case, it's an expendable alternate ''timeline'', but the effect is the same: it doesn't matter who has to die because, once the mission is complete, the dead characters won't be the "real" ones.
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17	!!As this is a {{Death Trope\|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
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19	!!Examples:
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21	[[folder:Comic Books]]
22	* In the "Rock of Ages" arc of ''ComicBook/JLA1997'', future Batman confronts Darkseid to distract him as the past JLA members return to the past and disable the mechanism that allowed him to ascend to full power, giving him TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in the process.
23	* ''ComicBook/StarTrekEarlyVoyages'': In the AlternateTimeline story arc "Futures", the joint mission of the ''Enterprise''-A and the ''Bounty'' to return Mia Colt to 2254 via the Well of Tomorrows on Algol II turns into one as the planet is located in a disputed system deep in Klingon-controlled space. In space, the ''Enterprise'' engages in battle with a fleet of Klingon birds-of-prey. Sulu dies when his console explodes. On the surface of Algol II, Scotty is enraged by the death of his ''Bounty'' crewmate Yssir and is killed with a Klingon bat'leth when he attempts to retaliate. In the meantime, the ''Enterprise'' has been severely damaged by the Klingon ships and many members of the crew, including Saavik, are dead. Just as Mia Colt jumps into the Well of Tomorrows, Captain Pike activates the self-destruct in order to take as much of the Klingon fleet with him as possible.
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26	[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
27	* In ''Fanfic/AsNApproachesInfinity'', Urahara sacrifices himself to allow Homura the chance to travel back in time.
28	* “[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/1699387 The Coven of Reformed Supernaturals]]” trilogy ends with “The Satan War”, as the titular team find that the only way to prevent the Apocalypse is to go back in time and confront Satan himself in Hell before he can trigger the Apocalypse. [[spoiler:Ultimately the Coven succeed in killing Satan and stopping the Apocalypse, but as thanks for their efforts various higher powers allow the Coven to essentially ‘possess’ their alternate selves, retaining their memories of what happened]].
29	* In ''Fanfic/TheRavensPlan'', the last few thousand living humans engage in what they know is a futile LastStand against the White Walkers to HoldTheLine and buy time for Melisandre and Bran, along with Sansa Stark, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen [[BloodMagic providing their own blood]], to execute a ritual meant to send them back into the past. However, no one took into account that the warriors' own blood would be spilling into and adding to the initial sacrifices, resulting in ''much'' more [[ThePowerOfBlood fuel for the spell]] than was ever needed. The supercharged spell ends up sending back the souls of at least 90% of the population of the whole known world (if not even ''beyond''), throwing the heroes' plan to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong '''way''' OffTheRails.
30	[[/folder]]
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32	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
33	* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'' {{double subver\|sion}}ts this trope. Cage has the ability to rewind time by a day every time he dies through most of the movie, effectively making his whole mission this. But near the end, he loses the ability to reset, and leads a team to finish the Omega Mimic once and for all, sure enough, with them dying to the last man. But by killing the Omega, he regains the ability and shifts back ''two'' days, with the Omega retroactively dying and preventing the whole plot.
34	* ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': The X-Men of a BadFuture send Wolverine into the past with MentalTimeTravel to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, and perform a heroic last stand to protect his body and buy him enough SanDimasTime to succeed. They all die, but history is changed just in time to save Wolverine's body from destruction, and when he wakes up back in it, he's in a new timeline where they all survived (as did a bunch of other people who'd died in the old timeline).
35	[[/folder]]
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37	[[folder:Literature]]
38	* ''Literature/StarTrekCoda'', the GrandFinale of the ''Literature/StarTrekNovelverse'', reveals that this particular continuity has been an AlternateTimeline ever since the timey-wimey events of ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' created a timeline with a fundamental instability about it. The unique circumstances around that incident led the [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E26S6E1TimesArrow Devidians]] to figure out how to devour entire timelines, catapulting them from scavengers into the cosmic predators behind the [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX5 Temporal Apocalypse]] threatening the entire multiverse. The heroes eventually learn that the only way to stop the crisis is to erase their whole timeline and thus erase the weakness that the Devidians exploited in the first place, or else the Devidians will eat the timeline anyway and go on to destroy the multiverse. A complex plan involving three interlocking suicide missions into enemy strongholds is launched; one to the Borg-assimilated Earth, one to the Bajoran wormhole in the mirror universe, and one into the Devidians' headquarters. Dozens of major characters are killed fighting off countless enemies, with only a bare handful living just long enough to see the erasure pulled off. There's even some bittersweet LeaningOnTheFourthWall about the concept, as characters note that they have to sacrifice their own existence to safeguard the "prime" timeline of canon, leaving no evidence that they ever existed.
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41	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
42	* ''Series/SevenDays1998'': This is a regular occurrence, where the team will work to send Frank back in time. In the second episode 98% of the world's population, including all the main characters except Frank, die due to a virus outbreak/attack. They work to get Frank and the sphere back in time, knowing that if he succeeds, they'll all be fine.
43	* ''Series/TwelveMonkeys'': This is essentially the whole plot, as Cole and the rest of Team Splinter acknowledge from the start that succeeding in [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong averting the plague]] will essentially [[RetGone wipe out]] the current versions of themselves. [[spoiler:Ultimately, for Cole it becomes a ''literal'' suicide mission, as it turns out that the only way to break the series of {{Stable Time Loop}}s is to erase himself from having ever existed in the first place.]]
44	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' runs with this in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E9TheWish The Wish]]". Cordelia, in a fit of jealousy, wishes that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, a wish granted by Anyanka, a [[JackassGenie Vengeance Demon]] masquerading as a high school student. In the resulting AlternateUniverse, Buffy never came to Sunnydale, never defeated The Master, and as a result the town is overrun with vampires, with Buffy's best friends, Willow and Xander, now being the Master's sadistic vampire lieutenants. Most of the cast die in the final fight, with the page quote above happening just before Giles destroys Anyanka's amulet, resetting the universe (and incidentally leaving Anyanka stuck as a human teenager struggling to make it through high school. [[RuleOfFunny Don't overthink it]].)
45	* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'': Towards the end of Season 2, the LegionOfDoom get the Spear of Destiny and use it to create [[VillainWorld Doom World]]. The Spear is then destroyed by Thawne, preventing the Legends from using it to fix reality. Out of options, they double back on their own timeline and try to keep the Spear from being taken by the Legion in the first place. They acknowledge that doing so will cause them to cease to exist, and deem it an acceptable price. All of the Doom World Legends except Sara die in the battle (several ensuring their counterparts survive), and once the Spear is destroyed she peacefully fades from existence.
46	* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Deconstructed in Season 5. The characters in 1977 undertake the extremely reckless mission to detonate a hydrogen bomb on top of the electromagnetic energy pocket that will cause their plane to crash on the Island thirty years later, racking up a huge number of casualties on the way, on the assumption that it will all be undone when their mission succeeds. In the end [[spoiler: not only does the mission fail, it's implied to have [[StableTimeLoop caused the very disaster they were seeking to prevent]], and results in Pierre Chang losing his arm, along with the deaths of a large number of DHARMA Initiative workers, Daniel, Juliet, and Sayid, who becomes [[FaceHeelTurn a servant of]] [[BigBad the Man in Black]] for most of the final season after he is seemingly resurrected by him.]]
47	* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
48	** In the episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E162010 2010]]", ten years after making an alliance with the Aschen to stop the Goa'uld, the former SG-1 learn that the Aschen have been covertly sterilizing humanity with the intent of basically making Earth's remaining population their slaves. With no way to stop the Aschen in the present, the team attempt to send a note backward through time to prevent the original alliance being formed. All four of them are killed, but they manage to send back a cryptic clue which eventually prevents involvement with the Aschen, and thus the timeline that led to their deaths.
49	** In the final episode, "[[Recap/StargateSG1S10E20Unending Unending]]", the titular SG-1 are trapped between two [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Ori]] battleships. Samantha Carter freezes time outside of the ship. They grow old on board and eventually Carter works out a way to escape- the twist being, they use the [[WaveMotionGun projectiles]] as an energy source to go back in time ([[{{Technobabble}} or something like that]]), but one of them has to stay old. They choose Teal'c, the TokenNonHuman, since he ages very slowly, and the ship is blown up by the laser. Luckily, it works, so Teal'c is sent back in time to put in a special program Carter wrote, allowing them to escape.
50	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
51	** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise Yesterday's Enterprise]]", the ''Enterprise''-D sacrifices itself to cover the return of the ''Enterprise''-C back to its original time in order to prevent the alternate timeline it emerged into from occurring.
52	** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E03TheVisitor The Visitor]]", Benjamin Sisko is trapped in subspace by a NegativeSpaceWedgie and periodically comes back for a few minutes at a time into the life of his son Jake, at ever increasing intervals. Jake abandons his writing career and spends his whole life trying to find a way to save his father. Eventually he determines that the tie between them can only be severed at the point of Jake's death, but that the outcome depends on Sisko's location at the time of Jake's death; if he's in subspace, he'll be lost forever, but if Jake's death occurs in one of the rare moments where Sisko is pulled into normal space, it will reset time to the time where the link was first formed -- the accident. He poisons himself so that he'll die at the exact time of Benjamin's next visit, sever the tie, undo about sixty years, and put Benjamin back a few seconds before the anomaly, giving him time to jump out of the way.
53	** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year of Hell]]" two-parter has Janeway go up against a timeship that has the power to RetGone people and things. ''Voyager'''s shields turn out to block the time wave, allowing them to recognize the changes. At the end, Janeway uses ''Voyager'' to [[RammingAlwaysWorks ram the timeship]], causing it to RetGone ''itself'', erasing the eponymous year and setting all of history back in order.
54	--->'''Janeway:''' Time's. Up.
55	** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E08Twilight Twilight]]", an alternate future is shown where Humanity is all but wiped out by the Xindi, due to Archer losing his ability to form long-term memories, and thus not being able to lead the ''Enterprise'' crew to stop the Xindi from destroying Earth. When it is discovered that the parasites causing Archer's illness can be eliminated from the past by eliminating them from the present, the surviving members of the crew (after most of them are killed when the bridge is destroyed) attempt to complete Archer's treatment in order to change the past. As the ship is invaded, they gradually get killed off- until Archer realizes that if he is destroyed, so will the parasites, thus using his dying moment to trigger the ship's self-destruct, destroying him and thus the parasites, and resetting the timeline.
56	* ''Series/Warehouse13'': At the end of Season 3 the Warehouse is destroyed, important supporting characters were all dead, and the world was coming to an end. At the start of Season 4 the heroes can rewind time by 24 hours if they get the right magical goodies, but a secret society takes exception to it. The heroes drop like flies, but no problem, it'll all be fixed in the rewind.
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59	[[folder:Video Games]]
60	* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'': In the main quest "In Hushed Whispers", the Inquisitor and Dorian are propelled into a BadFuture where the BigBad has won. Their former companions and Leliana then sacrifice themselves to return the Inquisitor and Dorian back to the present, preventing this future from ever occurring.
61	* ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'': After being stuck on a sinking submarine, Sissel and Missile say their farewells to Lynne and Kamila before hitching a ride on a torpedo towards a jettisoned submarine room. Said room contains their ticket to the past, so that they can rewind time once more and undo the death that started it all.
62	* ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'': In the finale, the BigBad has rewritten time to put themselves in charge. In a tantrum, the BigBad kills off several minor characters, which causes the characters to burst into healing Pons. [[EurekaMoment One of the Mafia realizes that they can help Hat Kid win by sacrificing themselves to create healing Pons for Hat Kid]], and if Hat Kid wins, time is reset to what it should be, bringing ''them'' back too. This results in a large number of supporting characters punching each other out to keep Hat Kid topped off on health during the final phase of the battle.
63	* In ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'', the BigBad, hailing from the ''awful'' CrapsackWorld of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'', is on a mission to avert it, and wholeheartedly accepts this, especially given his chosen method of time travel is ''heavily'' dependent on keeping history on track - if he changes history enough that it can no longer possibly lead to his existence, he is doomed to be RetGone. The problem is that he never told anybody ''why'' he's doing it.
64	* ''VideoGame/CobaltCore'': Cat.exe uploads themself into the mainframe of the Cobalt in order to draw it out where you can fight it. The automated defenses annihilate them within milliseconds but they still succeed. They chat about their record survival time with certain crew members before the fight sometimes, since whether you win or lose you're stuck in a time loop and they'll be back for the next one either way.
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67	[[folder:Webcomics]]
68	* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': One story arc revolves around trying to undo a false-vacuum collapse that will obliterate space itself. The same disaster makes time travel possible when ordinarily it isn't, so Kevyn is chosen to go back in time with the information that will prevent the disaster (and incidentally prevent the death of Captain Tagon). The physics of the time gate requires those left behind to keep it open as long as possible in order to send Kevyn as far back as possible; they all die doing so to give Kevyn a chance.
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71	[[folder:Web Original]]
72	* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-5000 SCP-5000]] tells the story of a Foundation operative who went on a journey across the world on a mission to reset the universe after the Foundation discovers [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow something that leads them to believe that ending humanity is the best course of action]] and wreaks havoc. He succeeds, but falls to his death in the process and the story begins with his remains appearing in a flash of light in the new universe with his ApocalypticLog.
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75	[[folder:Western Animation]]
76	* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'': In one episode, the Squadron Supreme uses the Reality Gem to create a reality where they're heroes and the Avengers are bad guys. Being aware of this by the time it seems he'll have to sacrifice himself to save the day, Iron Man does so in the express belief he'll be restored along with the original reality. He's proven right.
77	* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', as it's explicitly said that even the "Return to the Past" ability of the supercomputer can't bring back the dead. Doesn't stop it from being activated when people are ''on the verge of'' being killed, though.
78	* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': One episode sees Batman, Wonder Woman, and John Stewart travel to a BadFuture, where they team up with the future League to prevent it from ever occurring in the first place. Many of the future League members die in the battle (and Wonder Woman is even apparently erased from history in the process), but the proper timeline, as seen in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', is ultimately restored, with only Batman and Green Lantern recalling the experience.
79	* Zecora pulls this in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E26TheCutieRemarkPart2 The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 2]]", in a [[BadFuture Bad Alternate Future]] that's ruled over by Queen Chrysalis. She knows that Twilight Sparkle can set the timeline right again and prevent it, and goes down fighting Chrysalis in a [[https://trixiebooru.org/1035161 surprisingly dark scene]].
80	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': Nox, the first season's ArcVillain, is on what could be described as a Reset Button ''Genocide'' Mission. He wants to go many years back in time to [[spoiler:save his family]] and doesn't care who he kills in the process because it'd all be undone if he's successful. The heroes oppose him because they ''[[WrongTimeTravelSavvy don't]]'' believe he can succeed, and may even destroy the universe trying. [[spoiler:Nox doesn't destroy the universe, but he was basically wrong. What he expected to bring him 200 years in the past only went back ''[[AllForNothing less than an hour]]''. To top it all off, his minion manages to kill one of the heroes just ''before'' the time travel could have saved him, but he comes back early into the next season anyway.]]
81	* The start of the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' is kickstarted because Omi tries to go into the future to see his future self, forgetting that if he isn't in the past, he won't be in the future. Since he takes Dojo with him, the other monks aren't able to find the Shen Gong Wu, allowing Jack Splicer to get them all and take over the world (yes, Jack, the bumbling idiot villain rather than more powerful Wuya, Chase Young or Hannibal Bean. [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Who knew?]]). Omi reunites his fellow monks, who obviously are old by this point, who help him get into Jack's fortress and get the Shen Gong Wu needed to go back in time and prevent this. Of course, they end up meeting their end doing so just as Omi (or rather Dojo, as Omi [[HeroicBSOD is in shock at witnessing this]]) activates the Wu.
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Context Main / ResetButtonSuicideMission