Times where His Story Repeats Itself in Fan Works.
Batman
- one day at a time:
- Jason met Terry and Matty in almost the exact same way Bruce met him all those years ago: as Batman, in Park Row, with his future children trying to steal parts of the Batmobile. Just like him, Terry became Robin and grew increasingly violent, leading to a confrontation with the Joker in which he almost died. Unlike him, Jason's love for Terry manages to reach the latter, and not only does Terry not follow the dark path Jason did, he also proves himself to be the true successor to Jason as Batman.
- David Cain killed Carolyn Wu-San to "free" her sister Sandra, the woman that would become Lady Shiva. Decades later, he kills Shiva to "free" their daughter Cassandra from their legacy and then sacrifices himself to save her from Shiva cultists, finally allowing her to live her own life.
- Blackened Skies:
- During a late-night conversation, Kaede inadvertently hits Mondo's Berserk Button, sending him into a blind rage. In the heat of the moment, he nearly brains her with a dumbbell, mirroring a tragic incident from his past. Once he comes back to himself and realizes what happened, he's completely aghast and temporarily shuts down.
- After getting brained by an iron beam, Monotaro loses his memories once again and mistakes Kaede for his mommy.
- Dangan Ronpa: Assassinating Friendship: Komaeda was previously subjected to another mutual killing game, wherein he attached himself to Amami Rantaro as a Psycho Supporter, believing that their Hope would be strong enough to grow into something truly impressive. This didn't work out, and he wound up the Sole Survivor. For this new killing game, he quickly joins up with K1-B0, impressed by the robot's resolve to avoid killing anyone and find another way out. He then abandons him after K1-B0 is forced to kill in self-defense.
- In Fractured Fates, Kaneki failed to save her younger sister, Yuna, from dying in an accident that Kaneki herself was indirectly responsible for. Several years later, she befriends her classmate Asuna Izumi during the killing game, becoming something of a surrogate big sister towards her to try and make up for what happened to Yuna. Then, in Chapter 2, Kaneki finds out that Asuna is most likely being targeted for murder. Kaneki vows that "it'll be different this time" and that she will do whatever it takes to prevent Asuna from dying as Yuna did; she ultimately succeeds but ends up murdered in Asuna's place.
- Tyrantly Ever After:
- Artina was once punished harshly for her compassion, culminating in her own countrymen labeling her traitorous and executing her. Following the events of Disgaea 4, she finds herself in a Crisis of Faith, wondering whether God is punishing her for following her morals and helping the Hades Party.
- She also worries that Nemo's Dark and Troubled Past is repeating itself with how the other prinnies are bullying him.
- Ultimately, Celestia reacts hostilely upon learning of her defection, intending to drag her back and punish her in much the same way her homeland did. Valvatorez immediately recognizes this as familiar and is utterly outraged, intent upon ensuring things don't play out the same way.
- A backstory told in Hope for the Heartless reveals that Avalina's currently in the same situation with the Horned King as she was four years earlier with her Cool Horse Mitternacht, even if she's unaware of it. The girl alone could see that the furious horse everyone believed to be a lost cause was just acting out of grief from losing his rider, and she had to tame him before a time limit was up and he'd be put down. The dreaded Horned King has a time limit to complete his only chance to earn his freedom from the Black Cauldron, and Avalina slowly comes to make them both realize how lonely he is. Also, Avalina met both Mitternacht and the Horned King after being lost, goes through physical and emotional pain before she gets through to them (a task no one quite believes to be possible), and has her musical talents as an asset.
- In the penultimate chapter of Lancer Gets Serious
, Kotomine Kirei tells Lancer that throughout the entire story, he recreated the same events that happened in his myth as Cú Chulainn. He killed a watchdog and took her placenote , befriended a former enemynote , bedded a lover and left her the same nightnote , and broke a vow and lost some of his strengthnote . In the end, Kotomine's decision to let Lancer do whatever he wants to win the Grail War did nothing to prevent the Servant from repeating his old life.
- Prior to Stardust Crusaders, Jean-Pierre Polnareff was blindly caught up in DIO's charisma in the hopes of finding his sister's murderer, allowing DIO to put a flesh bud and put the swordsman under his control. In the post Golden Wind story Paralyzer, Polnareff finds out that his new boss, Giorno Giovanni, is the son of DIO, meaning Polnareff had blindly put his fate in another charismatic blonde, though as he happily notes, Giorno is more like his biological father Jonathan in his morals and not the same monster that DIO was.
- Leave for Mendeleiev: Adrien acts unaware of Chloé's crush on him; however, when Lady WiFi falsely "exposes" her as Ladybug, he's suddenly willing to reciprocate. Once he learns the truth, he goes right back to ignoring Chloé's feelings. This process repeats over a longer period of time with Marinette and Aurore since he convinces himself that they might hold the key to Ladybug's Secret Identity. After seeing the Future!Ladybug with Marinette, he decides he was on the wrong track, and promptly ignores them the next time they encounter each other, treating them as though they don't exist or matter to him anymore.
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng's Spite Playlist: Adrien's desire to Turn the Other Cheek and ignore Lila led to Marinette transferring to another school before this fic begins. Over the course of the story, he grapples with the question of whether or not to stand up to Lila; when he does, he faces many of the same challenges Marinette did, such as not being believed and being Made Out to Be a Jerkass. Eventually, he decides to transfer to the same school as Marinette.
- Of Patience and Pettiness: Alya's refusal to listen to Marinette costs her their friendship, despite her attempts to deny that painful truth and insistence that they're still friends. Later, Eden arrives, and they become friends... until Adrien accuses her of being Ladybug. At this point, Alya proves that she's learned nothing from her past mistakes, furiously leaping to all the wrong conclusions, berating Eden, and ripping into her harshly enough that the poor girl dissolves into tears and winds up akumatized, effectively ruining that friendship as well.
- The Wolves in the Woods: Alya corners Ben in the middle of Ms. Mendeleiev's classroom, which leads to her mother finding out when the teacher calls her and lets her hear Alya threatening Ben. A remarkably similar scene plays out later on when she confronts Lila—once again, she attacks her victim in public, not caring or paying any attention to who's around her, and is caught by a relative who shuts her down.
- Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison opens with Sakura facing Sasuke in a sparring match. When she manages to eke out a slight Curb Stomp Cushion, Sasuke soothes his wounded ego by going on a blistering rant, labeling her worthless and insisting that she'll never be anything more than Cannon Fodder. Sakura flees in tears. Later on, during the Chuunin Exam, she finds herself matched against Ino, who wastes no time delivering her own Breaking Speech about how weak and worthless she is compared to her. This time, however, Sakura is much better prepared to face such abuse from somebody she cared about, standing up to her and fighting back.
- The Echo Remains, But The Song Is Not The Same:
- The Hyuuga Incident involved several Kumo-nin disrupting the celebrations of a peace treaty between their villages when they attempted to kidnap the young heiress Hinata. Years later, the survivors of that conspiracy make another attempt, disrupting an otherwise peaceful mission for Team Eight.
- When Haku was young, he witnessed his mother's death at the hands of his own father, spurring him to kill him in response. In Wave, he witnesses Zabuza's death at the hands of the Mizukage and several Kiri ANBU, and laments how he wasn't able to immediately avenge him in the same fashion.
- What You Knead:
- Sparrow angrily claiming that Kakashi was responsible for causing Itachi's Face–Heel Turn forcibly reminds him of how his father was previously treated as The Scapegoat by Konohagakure, culminating in Sakumo being Driven to Suicide and Kakashi dedicating himself to restoring their family's honor by becoming a model shinobi. This time, rather than mutely accepting the blame, he decides enough is enough, retiring from ANBU and active service to become a baker.
- After Neji nearly murders Hinata during their match, Sasuke hallucinates an image of Itachi standing behind him, wondering if the Hyuuga realize that they're raising a potential clan-killer.
- your move, instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue): Aburame Shikuro notes that Orochimaru's decision to take Tenten as an apprentice reminds them of how he previously mentored Anko.
- Thunder in Kanto: In Celadon City, several people (including the heroes) are banned from the Gym after expressing their distaste for perfume. This time, Erika herself is directly involved rather than the ban being created by her Overzealous Underlings. This results in Celadon Gym getting set ablaze again, and once more, somebody is trapped by the flames—Erika herself, necessitating a rescue from one of the very people she forbade from entering in the first place.
- The Smurfs That Canon Forgot: In Smurf Village Upturned, Dreamy notices that most of the smurfs who were previously lost in time make up their missing members, making him extremely worried that they're about to face another tragedy on par with that displacement. His fear of this makes him declare that he'd sooner leave the village entirely than deal with another situation of that caliber.
- The Judgement of the World (5Ds): In their past life, Yusei was a warrior and Aki a high priestess who fell in love with each other despite the former's social status being far beneath the latter's. Their reincarnated selves, a marked criminal and the daughter of a senator, fall in love once more. Additionally, Aki wiped out her entire tribe with her powers in her previous life upon discovering that they had tricked her into sacrificing Yusei due to feeling he was unworthy of their priestess. In the present, she enters Heroic BSoD and lets Black Rose Dragon (Aki's Soul Fragment) go on a rampage after learning that the practice dummy that she saw herself using her powers against in her VR headset was really Yusei. The entire thing was even engineered by a handful of members of the Arcadia Movement that she once belonged to, all of whom believed that Yusei was holding Aki back, with many of them getting injured (and possibly even killed) in the ensuing destruction caused by Black Rose Dragon. Fortunately, Aki's friends help her snap out of it the second time, and Yusei survives.
