No Ontological Inertia: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Ontological Inertia]] is the tendency stuff has to continue being stuff. Things, in general, keep existing even when we're not looking at them. (Except, of course, for TV shows[[Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma|,]] which have the nasty habit of going off the air if people stop watching them...)

 

{{examples}}

* [[Time Travel]] subversion: At the end of the first season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', Usagi seemed to turn back time/erase everyone's memories of the past year. However, her two friends who had become a couple during that time... still are. To be fair, this was an example of a [[Gecko Ending|premature]] [[Grand Finale]] [[Post Script Season|retooled when the series continued]].

** On the other hand, this was usually played straight with [[Monster of the Week]] fights. In one episode, the Monster of the Week was conjured from a camera and could trap in a photograph whoever she fired a beam at (this included the [[Victim of the Week]], Luna, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars); all of them were returned to normal as soon as Sailor Moon destroyed the monster.

** Played straight/invoked in ''[[Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force]]'': {{spoiler|Massive magical iceberg about to drop onto your ship? Shank the caster and the ice vanishes!}}

* Reversed in ''[[My Otome]]'', where a SLAVE's death results in the death of its Master, and an Otome's death results in the death of ''its'' Master. Making them possibly the worst bodyguards ever.

* Jutsu in ''[[Naruto]]'' seem to be like this. The reason for this is that every jutsu is powered by a person's chakra which is generated by their body. When they die, their body ceases to produce chakra and anything dependent on their chakra to maintain its form breaks down.

** When Team Gai fought the Kisame clone, the first thing he did was puke out a whole lake's worth of water and when he was defeated the water disappeared.

** {{spoiler|Danzo}}'s men were able to tell he died when {{spoiler|the seals he placed on their tongues to paralyze him if they tried to reveal information about him}} disappear.

** Averted with Kimimaro's bones. Even after he died, the forest of bones he created remained intact. This is likely due to the fact that, while created with his chakra, the bones still had their own strength without the chakra.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', whenever a limb or other body part of a homonculus is separated from the rest of the body (or, to be more specific, {{spoiler|the Philosopher's Stone at the Homonculus's core}}), it decomposes into dust in seconds, only to be replaced as the homonculus regenerates. Though, it is possible to reattatch it if it's done instantly, as shown when Gluttony keeps himself from [[Half the Man He Used To Be|falling apart]], so to speak.

* Subverted in ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'', where the local form of spiritual power, Nen, can be used to materialize objects or impose 'rules' to people which don't disappear with the death of the caster; instead, they can even get STRONGER. A specific ability (Nen removal) must be used to get rid of this kind of things.

* At the end of ''[[Jack and the Witch]]'' (1967), after the evil queen Auriana is destroyed the magic she used to turn children into harpies dissipates, causing the kids to return to normal.

* ''[[Madoka Magica]]'': It seems that any active magical effect is destroyed when the [[Magical Girl]] causing it dies, most obvious with their outfits. The same thing happens to a witch's barrier when the witch is destroyed.

* [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|One of the best aversions in history]] shows up in ''[[Star Driver]]''. Long story, but an [[Artificial Human]] was created using a First Phase power. When the Driver lost the power, [[Tear Jerker|it was assumed the creation disappeared]]. It turns out to be [[Right Behind Me|not the case]].

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', averted with Team Rocket's first schemes in Kanto. Said schemes involved using the Viridian Forest as breeding grounds to raise an army of powerful Pokemon to take over the region. Two years after Red beats Team Rocket, the Forest is still full of non-native, over-leveled Pokemon who are liable to attack people at random.

 

* Particularly aggravating when mutants (in the [[Marvel]] universe) lose their powers and (in general) turn human. That is, you might have [[wikipedia: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.

* ''[[X-Factor (comics)|X-Factor]]'', in fact, did an arc based partially around that premise. SOME mutants became completely human looking when they became non-mutants, but other mutants retained vestiges of their mutations even after Decimation—horns, colourful feathers instead of hair, etc. -- and some of them resent ex-mutants who can pass as completely humans who retain their attachment to their previous mutant state, because they can go back and forth, whenever they want.

* In what is probably the worst offender this editor has ever seen, ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' character "The Lizard" was created by a man, Dr. Curt Connors, trying to grow his right arm back. When he becomes the Lizard, his right arm does, indeed, grow back. When he's cured and reverts to normal, however, he loses his arm again. Connors' RIGHT ARM has No Ontological Inertia. Ditto for Kommodo, who uses an improved version of Dr. Connors' formula, that allows her to transform at will. In human form, she ''has no legs''. Where on earth do [[Shapeshifter Baggage|they come from]]?

* Averted in an interesting way in ''[[Judge Dredd]]''. 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. {{supersecretspoiler|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.}}

* [[Superman]]'s Kryptonian physiology has often been described as a solar battery, absorbing the radiation from Earth's yellow sun and storing it, which powers his [[Flying Brick|flight, invulnerability,]] and [[New Powers as the Plot Demands|super-cake-baking]] powers. However, whenever someone wants to shut off Superman's powers, they just bung him in a room with a Red bulb and he becomes as weak as a kitten. The equivalent with a human would be going into a dark room and suddenly deforming with rickets because of massive Vitamin D deficiency.

** Even his reaction to red sunlight varies by writer. Sometimes his powers flip off like a switch when exposed, sometimes the light simply weakens him rapidly, and likewise he can recover slowly or quickly. Recently, the Kandorians made a Red Sun gun that fires a burst of red sunlight at a Kryptonian which shuts off their powers completely for an hour even though the exposure is brief.

* During the ''Millennium'' crossover, the Justice League visited the homeworld of the Manhunters and confronted their leader. The entire planet collapsed when the head Manhunter escaped.

* This is how Green Lantern's powers work. The constructs and effects he creates only exist as long as he is thinking about them. However, any impact his constructs have on normal physical matter remains (if he digs a pit with a glowy shovel, the pit remains after the glowy shovel disappears.)

 

* Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''

** Genie moves the palace to higher elevation per Jafar's orders. When Jafar is defeated, the palace instantly and magically moves back to its original position. The fact that defeating ''Jafar'' reversed ''Genie's'' actions makes this case particularly absurd.

* In the ''[[Lion King]]'', Scar's death immediately brings rain back to the Pridelands and repairs a completely devestated ecosystem in what appears to be a few months.

* Near the climax of the [[Disney]] version of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'', Quasimodo pours ridiculous amounts of molten copper from a [[Bag of Holding|cauldron]] onto the soldiers in the sqare below. A little later, {{spoiler|Frollo [[Disney Villain Death|dies by falling into it.]]}} Then, when the protagonists come out of the cathedral at the end of the movie, the boiling metal is gone and the square is full of people.

* The virus pandemic in ''[[Outbreak]]''. Once the protagonist has found and isolated the antibody from the monkey's blood serum, by the next scene there's enough antiserum for all infected (how?). Once injected into the dying people, it instantly cures them and everything shortly thereafter has returned to normal, with no lasting ill effects. This was a ''flesh-eating'' virus. So, once the antidote is delivered, all damage is instantly healed; including skin lesions and internal organ damage.

* A major plot point in ''[[Underworld Evolution]]'', As the first vampire, Markus managed to convince the other vampires that killing him would destroy all of them, and killing his brother William (the first lycan) would destroy all lycans—thus depriving them of their slaves. When Selene hears about this a thousand years or so later, she immediately sees it for the [[Subverted Trope|lie it is]], but the one telling it to her notes that Victor believed it enough to not risk it.

* In Dario Argento's ''Inferno'', the central apartment building collapses after its designer is strangled. (In ''Suspiria'', the building bursts into flame after Helena Markos is stabbed, but that's more of a [[Load-Bearing Boss]].) {{spoiler|The Nurse, aka the Mother of Darkness,}} is, like {{spoiler|her sister, Helena Markos (aka the Mother of Sighs)}} a [[Load-Bearing Boss]]. In both cases, the house is an extension of the {{spoiler|Mother}} who lives there. The same happened to {{spoiler|the third and final sister, ''[[The Mother Of Tears]]''}},hence there is an in-universe logic to it.

* In ''[[Super Mario Bros. (film)|Super Mario Bros]]'', as soon as Koopa is defeated the King turns back into a humanoid without needing to be re-evolved.

** Somewhat retconned in the books, in that the Empire became much weaker after Endor, but held out for a couple years, and even afterwards held on to an "Imperial Remnant" for years.

** Hand-waved in the EU by Timothy Zahn with the invention of what became, in the games, Battle Meditation. The Emperor made the Imperial forces awesomer because of the Force. When he died, that awesomeness went away and, in the confusion that followed, the Rebels kicked major buttocks.

* The climax of 1995's ''[[The Net]]'' would seem to indicate that since an evil computer program that has erased all of Sandra Bullock's identity records, deleting that program will automagically ''restore'' all her records. (This is comparable to deleting your copy of Open Office to restore all your documents to their original condition, or un-Photoshopping your pictures by removing Photoshop.)

** Sadly, this is probably not the silliest computer-related error in that movie.

* In ''[[Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon]]'', the moon was only one second away from crashing into the Earth when Ming was killed, instantly restoring everything to normal. Ontological inertia wasn't even necessary at this point - normal physical inertia, or even the Earth's gravity, should have allowed the moon to keep moving for at least one second. Not to mention that Ming was using a machine to move the moon, so even without ontological inertia someone must have turned it off before Ming even hit the ground.

 

* Averted in ''[[Lone Wolf]]''. 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}}.

 

* In ''[[The Hunger Games]]'' a character is near death with blood poisoning, most likely dehydrated, they haven't properly eaten in perhaps a week, and yet, after a shot of a very potent medicine of sorts, they're pretty much fine. That, and apparently it healed a several inch deep gash in this person's leg in a matter of days after this.

** Then again, the Capitol's technology ''does'' include force fields, hovercraft, genetic-hybrid weapon-creatures, and the means to film all the competitors in the titular Games without on-site camera crews...

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''Hogfather'' features such a [[Collapsing Lair]]: The Castle of Bones, located in the otherworldly realm of the anthropomorphic personification and winter god called the Hogfather, starts to disintegrate back into ice and snow from which is was created after the Hogfather {{spoiler|became the victim of an assassination attempt to erase his existence from mythology}}. In a weird subversion, the Hogfather seems to have ''negative'' ontological inertia; {{spoiler|he ceases to exist before the assassination plot is anywhere close to completion, and returns when the plot has been foiled (again, before completion).}}

** This can be somewhat explained by the plan consisting of preventing belief in the Hogfather by means of magicly not letting people believe in him, but it used bits of people as they were earlier. For example, making a 30 year old not have believed in him since 8 years old.

** It's stated that Sauron was using his power to build his empire and even drive his forces. Also notable, and justified because the Nine rings were innately tied to the One Ring, is the instant destruction of the Nazgul.

*** Even the three rings of the Elves lost their power. Though Sauron never touched them and had no hand in their creation the Ring-Smiths learned their craft from his hand. Presumably any surviving Dwarf Rings were also rendered inert.

* Spells (at least, some of them) in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' universe apparently lack Ontological Inertia. For example, Harry realizes that {{spoiler|Dumbledore}} is dead when the paralysis that character had cast on Harry releases. That same spell has several times been used to zap someone and walk off, so there's no reason but Ontological Inertia that this would work. It is also stated that a piece of soul trapped inside a [[Soul Jar|Horcrux]] disappears when the Horcrux is destroyed (handwaved as a Horcrux is, apparently, the exact opposite of a human being; thus the Ontological Inertia depends on what contains the soul). Transfiguration also works this way; transfigured objects only stay that way temporarily, and they go back as soon as the wizard stops keeping them transfigured via magic.

* [[Deryni]] magic works this way. Not only is it physically tiring to perform ([[You Can Barely Stand|exhausting]] when performed excessively), but effects vanish when their creator is destroyed. In ''The Quest for Saint Camber,'' {{spoiler|Tiercel De Claron}} dies after {{spoiler|Conall}} pushes him down a flight of stairs, and the handfire he'd created to light their way flickers and vanishes.

* In Anne Rice's "main" saga (''Lestat the Vampire'' and ''The Queen of the Damned'', mostly), one of the first vampires (who was also a witch/spirit seer/whatever) states that killing the first vampire would in turn kill all vampires. The king, who is the first vampire {{spoiler|except he is not, it's actually his wife, but neither of them know it at the moment}} misunderstood it as "killing ''any'' vampire will kill'em all", so he let her go. This lack of ontological inertia is explained as vampirism actually being {{spoiler|a spirit "possessing" Akasha, the queen. The spirit has lost his mind and identity (''Amel has now what he has always wanted; Amel has the flesh. But Amel is no more.'') and it's "core" resides in Akasha, granting her all vampire traits. Amel's "body" extends to the blood of every vampire there exists, so each of the later ones can die and that's it, but should the "core" die, the entire spirit passes on and all vampires are pretty much screwed.}} They manage to kill {{spoiler|her}} anyways, by {{spoiler|having another vampire absorb said "core" and become its new host}}.

* Subverted in ''[[Rainbow Mars]]'' by Larry Niven. In one of the short stories in that book, the entire future in which the book takes place has its past altered so that it never came about. This is caused by the ghost of the time traveler who changed it that way in the first place. Long story. However, Svetz returns to the future and finds it the same as always, due to the effects of "Temporal Inertia". There's still a new future, but his exists purely out of the fact that it did. Of course, this is in a book where time traveling back before the 20th century takes you to a fantasy world with unicorns, Moby Dick, leviathans and [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' [[John Carter of Mars|Mars]].

* This is invoked in ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell]]''. Since magic is the effect of a magician imposing their will on the universe, the surest way to cure a person of an enchantment is to kill the enchanter. {{spoiler|Though at the end, the curse of darkness placed on the titular magicians lingers long past the death of the Gentleman with Thistledown Hair who placed this curse. Presumably, this is because the earth and the sky actually placed the enchantment, and the Gentleman with Thistledown Hair simply asked them to do this on his behalf.}}

* Subverted in [[Larry Niven]]'s ''What Good Is a Glass Dagger''. The castles of the magician {{spoiler|Wavyhill}} all collapse when he no longer keeps them functioning because he built them {{spoiler|on hills shaped like waves, so that when the magic failed the hill would fall over and bury the castle, hiding any evidence he left behind.}}

** In fact, [[Functional Magic|the Art]] is explicitly stated to work this way in general within the books; a rule of thumb measure of a character's magical power is how far they can bend the Laws, how long it takes to accomplish, and how long it lasts.

* In [[Patricia C. Wrede]]'s ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles|Talking To Dragons]]'', after the evil firewitch is killed, Daystar looks at Shiara, [[Taken for Granite|turned to stone]]. He thinks that some spells die when the caster does, but some powerful casters can do better. This one was powerful.

* Averted in Lloyd Alexander's ''[[Prydain Chronicles|The Black Cauldron]]''; destroying the Cauldron does ''not'' destroy all the Cauldron-born zombies. But at least it ensures no one will make any more of them. Played straight in the movie.

* On the other hand, ''The High King'' shows that {{spoiler|stabbing one of the Cauldron Born with Drnwyne will result in all of the rest dying as well, at the exact same time. Also, killing Arwan will destroy Annuvin as well as mark the beginning of a magic-less time in Prydain (all magic users must sail for other lands, all magic beings must isolate themselves from humanity, and almost all magic items have been destroyed}}.

* An interesting variation of this trope is used in [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series as the power source of a superweapon, called "[[Techno Babble|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 [[Earthshattering Kaboom|quite spectacular]].

* An example with an explanation other that just magic; in Dean Koontz's ''Frankenstein'', {{spoiler|Frankenstein/Helios ensured that on his death a signal would be sent out to all of his creations via satellite causing them to drop dead.}}

* Justified in the second book of the ''[[Chanters of Tremaris]]'' Trilogy, ''The Waterless Sea'' when {{spoiler|the Palace of Cobwebs collapses to dust when the children are rescued and after the iron-call chant is stopped}}, as it is explained that the continuous iron-call chant was the only thing holding it together by that point, and stopping the chanters meant that the entire structure had about as much support as a gigantic sand castle.

* Played with in a short story by [[Neil Gaiman]]. The story itself is framed as being told in a club for famous con-men, by one of the best-who proves this claim by relating the tale of how he got into the club by selling a bridge (which the other members deride as so base and guileless that having ever tried such a scheme ought to disqualify you from getting in at all). In the particular corner of the cosmos the tale occurs in, magic was used regularly and the conman referred to [[Ontological Inertia]] as a "magical half-life", defined as the length of time after a magician's death that a magical working would stand, to convince several very rich people that an extremely valuable bridge constructed by magic was nearing the end of its half-life and that, by paying him a nominal fee of a few thousand, they themselves could profit greatly when it came down.

* [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s "Fall of the House of Usher" describes in great detail how a mansion decays and collapses before the protagonist's eyes after its residents die.

** In a more direct way, this is played straight. After Azash is annihilated, the city of Zemoch begins to collapse under its own accumulated age.

* Averted in [[James Herbert]]'s ''The Fog''; while the destruction of the fog results in clear blue skies and sunshine, those who succumbed to its effects are still insane. John Holman, the protagonist, even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this.

* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] ''[[Barsoom]]'' novel ''Llana of Gathol'', section "The Ancient Dead". When Lum Tar O is killed by John Carter, all of the people he put into hypnotic suspended animation a million years ago wake up at the same time.

** {{spoiler|Justified in ''Changes''. At the climax of the book, Harry turns a bloodline curse (incredibly powerful spell that kills anyone related to the sacrifice, think [[The Order of the Stick|Familicide]]) upon the Red Court of vampires by killing its most recent member - his lover Susan. This kills every last Red Court vampire in the world, as well as curing all half-vampires, which desestabilizes many Latin American countries whose high spheres of power were occupied by vampires.}}

* In the short story "The Most Precious of Treasures" by Desmond Warzel, the protagonists note that a magical construct has in fact outlasted its creator by several millennia; this trope is not only discussed but mentioned by name.

* In ''[[Replica]]'' #16, ''Happy Birthday, Dear Amy'', implanted technology causes Amy to [[Overnight Age-Up|age into an adult]] overnight on her thirteenth birthday, but she somehow turns back into a teenager when the cause of the age-up is destroyed.

 

** ''[[Super Sentai]]'' does this as well.

* ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]'' has an interesting dual case of this. Similar to the other kids show example above, when monsters go back in time to wreak havoc and the title character defeats them, any changes they've made to the timeline are reversed... almost. ''Human beings'' have No Ontological Inertia, since their existence is dependent on memories others have of them. So if someone is killed in the past, but everyone that knew them in the present loses their memories of them at the same time, that person won't come back to life, and will be forced to wander the timestream. This leads to a very glaring plot hole later in the series. Ryotaro isn't worried when {{spoiler|Yuuto is killed in the past, erasing his future self}} because by killing the [[Monster of the Week]], all the damage is restored. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|Yuuto doesn't return because "Ryotaro never knew Yuuto at that age".}} All well and good, until it gets revealed that {{spoiler|Airi and Sakurai's plan to hide their child hinged on Ryotaro's memory: basically, the ''entire'' timeline would be reconstructed from his memory, sans the baby which was erased from his memories by the Zeronos Cards. What about all the other people that Ryotaro had never met?}}

** Adam Monroe (spoilers ahead). {{spoiler|He's over 400 years old, but looks to be in his mid-twenties. However, once Arthur Petrelli steals his healing ability, [[No Immortal Inertia|Monroe ages all 400 years, dies, and turns to dust. His youth and health have no ontological inertia.]] This is particularly aggravating in that it makes no sense with the way Monroe's powers work. They don't cover up his age or mask it, he has highly advanced regenerative capabilities. Logically, once he loses his power, he should just be normal, still young, but able to age and be hurt NOW.}}

** In the Season 3 finale, Sylar activates Primatech's security system, causing heavy bars to drop over the windows and all the lights to go out. When {{spoiler|he "dies"}}, the heavy barriers all rise and the lights turn back on. {{spoiler|The building then explodes, but for unrelated reasons}}.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]:''

** The changelings all asploded when the mother was killed.

* Averted in ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'''s portion of the [[Crossover]] ''Movie Wars CORE'': the Spider Dopant has the ability to plant "spider bombs" in people that go off if they get too close to their loved ones. The bombs are still active after his defeat, which forced Double's mentor to avoid his own daughter for the last decade.

* In Assignment 3 of ''[[Sapphire and Steel]]'', the Changeling can reduce things to dust by touching them. When Steel returns him to his original condition, everything he had touched is instantly restored.

 

 

* Occasionally found in the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting for ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. When the Darklord of an "island" domain is killed, the island may cease to exist, sometimes simply being absorbed into the Mists, sometimes violently falling apart. What happens to the island's inhabitants is unknown. This is because the Darklords are [[Fisher King]]s of their various domains, which only exist to serve as a prison and stage for the Darklords they're built around. With no Darklord, the domain literally serves no purpose and is, in the view of the Dark Powers, expendable.

** This trope forms an important part of the worldview of the Abber Nomads who inhabit the Nightmare Lands domain. Because their surroundings are constantly shifting, they see no reason to believe that anything exists when they are not interacting with it.

* Massively averted by the [[Nobilis]], who exist in Celestial time and are mostly immune to the effects of mundane time. You can travel to before a Noble was born and kill her parents...and all you'll do is piss her off. Mundane history now says she was never born, sure, but she still exists, because she she was Ennobled before you tried to erase her.

* Incorporated into ''[[Ars Magica]]'', where less powerful magics often have no persistence, but more powerful magic does persist, mainly through investment of game resource / power-points. Things destroyed by magic stay destroyed, and killed creatures are still dead, even with less powerful magic.

 

== [[Toys]] ==

* ''[[Bionicle]]'''s [[Mask of Power|Kanohi Mohtrek]] toyed with the trope. It's essentially a mask that creates duplicates of the user, but with a twist: the duplicates are actually the user's past selves, plucked out of the timeline into the present. Then they fight or some stuff. When the mask is turned off, the duplicates return to their original time, and will have no recollection of the future events they "just" witnessed. What the mask doesn't undo is physical damage, however. So whenever a past-self is summoned into battle and gets battered and weakened, he/she will return in ''that'' state to his/her timeline, but won't know how he/she suddenly got weakened and bruised.

 

** On the other hand, it appears that the consequences of the opening of the portals to the Elemental Planes remains even after the portals are destroyed—the ending only gives short glimpses, but the island on which the Earth Portal is situated doesn't appear to sink after the portal is destroyed, nor does the lake in which the Water Portal is situated drain away as soon as the portal is destroyed. The post-ending gameplay would seem to corroborate that, [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|except the elemental portals remain open despite the ending explicitly showing all of them being destroyed]].

* A rather ridiculous example of this is mentioned in Shang Tsung's ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]'' bio: Supposedly, his master, Shao Kahn, has a contractual stipulation with anyone who pledges allegiance to him that, if Shao Kahn ends up biting the dust, so too will they, which also means he's able to revive his minions should they die due to this link. In a minor subversion, however, it's apparently treated as an unsubstantiated rumor among Khan's allies, hence why Shang Tsung had no compunction about slaying him with fellow sorcerer Quan Chi's help at the beginning of ''[[Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance]]''. A minor point of argument with this among fans is exactly ''who'' will be affected by this trope should Shao Kahn be [[Killed Off for Real]].

** [[A Wizard Did It|Dragons did it.]] {{spoiler|They served the Grotesqueries in the true world, until the dragons wrote the seals to create a safe pocket of reality where they were the dominant species.}} Then humanity emerged and kind of mucked it all up.

* In ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'', anything that has been created by being written down in the wish-granting [[Cosmic Keystone|Sacred Tome]] will suffer the same fate as the page it was written on should the tome be damaged. Spilling coffee on the book is ''probably'' not a good idea—burning it is even less so.

* At one point in the console RPG ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', the player is given the choice to fight and kill Magus, the villain for the first half of the game, or to spare his life since certain other characters have far surpassed him on the Villain Meter. If you choose to kill Magus, his curse on Glenn/Frog is lifted at the end of the game, whereas if you let Magus live, Glenn is still a frog at the end. This raises questions, because {{spoiler|if Magus is alive at the end of the game, he travels back to 12,000 BC to search for his sister, after which the time gate closes forever. So what exactly happens in a No Ontological Inertia scenario when Magus dies of natural causes ''after'' laying the curse in his personal timeline, but thousands of years ''before'' the curse in objective time?}}

** The [[PlayStation]] version adds to the confusion with an additional ending cutscene which features a human Glenn, which plays whether or not you killed Magus.

*** Except that's not what happened. {{spoiler|Instead, he picks himself back up, walks and wanders until he forgets who he is, and then we have Gil from [[Radical Dreamers]] and, later, Guile from [[Chrono Cross]].}}

** ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' also averts this trope when the heroes attack Magus's palace, {{spoiler|an assault which ends with the whole palace getting sucked into [[Negative Space Wedgie|a massive time vortex]]}}. The disappearance of their ruler doesn't end the Mystics' war against the Kingdom of Guardia as his second-in-command picks up where Magus left off.

* Averted in ''[[BloodRayne]] 2'', where killing the [[Big Bad]] at the end of the game doesn't actually change anything; the world remains the same vampire-ruled hellhole the Big Bad turned it into halfway through the game. The protagonist even remarks how thinking everything would change back to normal after the Big Bad's death was "pretty stupid, huh?"

* ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' is all over this trope. In any battle, as soon as you kill the last enemy, you're invincible; all onscreen attacks will either disappear or pass right through you. This is true even in ''Network Transmission'', a sidescrolling homage to the classic series. Examples abound in the plot of the games too: when you beat an enemy NetNavi, whatever havoc it's created in the real world is harmlessly defused.

* ''[[Arcanum]]'' has a few quest-based curses that expire on death. One example is found early on, and the other involves the [[Crystal Ball]] quest. The Gypsy Blood curse, on the other hand, is caused by death.

** This actually applies to a large majority of spells. Summoned monsters disappear when you no longer sustain the spell, time reverts to normal when you're no longer consciously altering it, et cetera. Actually, Arcanum makes considerable use of the ephemeral nature of magic both in its discussion of the setting's philosophies, sciences and cultures, and in its game mechanics. No Ontological Inertia is again used here with deliberate intent. Its few exceptions run the full gamut from excellent writing to dropping the ball.

* Though this trope is not used in the original ''[[King's Quest III]]'', the two remakes by ''Infamous Adventures'' and ''[[AGD Interactive]]'' avert it and play it straight, respectively. In the first, an epilogue shows {{spoiler|Alexander and King Graham}} rebuilding the kingdom of Daventry from the devastation wrought by the dragon, but in the second a magic glowing pinball rebuilds the kingdom and puts everything right once the dragon is dead {{spoiler|and the royal family is reunited}}.

* ''[[Cabal]]'' has this in spades. To beat a level, you had to defeat enemies and destroy structures until a bar at the bottom filled up, at which every remaining enemy died/blew up and every remaining structure on screen collapsed. As for the two [[Flunky Boss]]es, destroying the main target would cause all the flunkies to spontaneously explode.

* Averted in the Valley of Dying Things scenario of ''[[Blades Of Avernum]].'' The Vale is suffering a curse in which the rivers poison the vegetation and anything that drinks from the river or eat food grown with river water. After destroying the source of the toxins, {{spoiler|an abandoned magical waste treatment facility deep below the surface}} the poison already within the environment does not leach away or vanish, and the inhabitants of the Vale flee only to come back once the Vale has been magically cleansed. Even then, the land is still not as prosperous as it was before the curse.

* Subverted by the ''[[Fallout]]'' series. At the end of the first game, you {{spoiler|kill the Master of the Super Mutants}}. In all the subsequent games, however, the good guys (and others) are still fighting against bands of Super Mutants who survived.

* Played heartbreakingly straight in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''. After the Fayth are released from their state of constant dream summoning, everything they summoned starts to fade away such as the Aeons and {{spoiler|the people of Dream Zanarkand including Tidus}}.

* Averted in ''Anvil of Dawn''. While trying to get past the gargoyle in the basement of the Dark Lantern, you can point out that the mage who summoned him as a guardian is now dead. The gargoyle says he's pleased to hear that, but he's still bound by the summons, which you have to break yourself before you can get past him.

 

* The permanence of any spell run amok in ''[[The Wotch]]'' seems inversely proportional to the number of people still stuck when the danger has passed. For example, a demon turns dozens of people into human-animal hybrids, and even a stone fountain, but they all turn back when he vanishes. On the other hand, a girl turned temporarily into an imp switches a couple, and they stay switched for months after she turns back, and only switch back ''at all'' because a witch does it for them.

* Averted in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' with the poison infecting orcish lands. It takes so long to be undone after the source was destroyed that Dominic [[Face Palm|face palms]] himself for completely forgetting it was there.

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', the demon K'Z'K possesses Gwynn's body and changes it to a large, monstrous form. He seems able to change alter this form at will and does so, and at one point even reconstructs it after being put through a meat grinder. And when he's banished from the body, which is looking monstrous at the time, it returns to its normal shape (albeit comatose because he keeps her soul). At least, before this, one of the characters mentions the possibility that she might come back as minced meat.

* In ''[[Shadows of Enchantment]]'', a common annoyance for the [[True Companions]] in the past has been for them to heroically slay a huge, hideous enchantment-created monster, only for its corpse to revert to a dead squirrel or something.

 

* In an episode of ''[[Ben 10]]'', a giant tick-like alien lands on Yellowstone Park and begins sucking all life in the area dry. The Tennysons are in the area, but are unable to stop it immediately due to the usual aliens proving ineffective. By the time Ben finally learns to use the new alien of the week, the entire area is gray and dead, the usual geysers are spitting poison, and the ground is brittle and breaking apart in large floating chunks. After the tick is destroyed, the background ''literally'' turns green and lush again in midconversation, and the gunk that Ben has to wash off the Rustbucket is the only evidence that the tick was ever there. Why then did the gunk remain? {{spoiler|Just to make life suck for Ben.}}

** 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.

* In the ''[[Sushi Pack]]'' episode "But is it Art?", once the [[Ominous Pipe Organ]] The Collector used to [[Art Initiates Life|bring famous paintings to life]] is destroyed, the "art zombies" immediately return to their canvases.

* Sort-of subverted in an early episode of ''[[Gargoyles]]'', when Demona cast a spell on Goliath, transforming him into [[Brainwashed|her thrall]] as long as she carried the original spell (or at least, the page from the book it was written in). While the book and the page that the spell was written upon were both recovered and Demona defeated, none of the gargoyles had the necessary magical skill to undo the spell, thus leaving Goliath stuck as a slave to whoever held the spell [[And I Must Scream|and fully aware of his actions and unable to stop himself]]. Elisa, however, came up with an elegant solution; she held the page with the spell written on it in her hands and commanded Goliath [[Exact Words|to live the rest of his life as if he'd never been put under that spell in the first place]]. Needless to say, it worked.

** Generally averted, however. Spells cast tended to have permanent effects until either a counter-spell was used or an escape clause was evoked. Even [[The Fair Folk|Oberon's Children]] tend to follow these rules.

** It was left unresolved because the results would be something [[Ludicrous Gibs|not showable in a cartoon series]]. It's almost [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]], as it was most certainly fatal.

* Tended to be the case on ''[[My Little Pony]]''. For instance, when Tirac was killed his spells were undone.

* In the first season finale of ''[[Transformers Prime]]'', {{spoiler|Unicron}} unleashes a whack of natural disasters all over Earth, including loads of tornadoes and a humongous tidal wave that rises above the cityscape. After he's been defeated, the wall of water plainly freezes mid-air and promptly falls apart, and the blowing winds also disappear.

 

** "Peek-a-Boo!"

* During the next stage, children understand the significance of objects and people disappearing, but don't quite understand that they can return. Cue the baby crying while Mom is away.

* Puppies develop object permanence at around 8 weeks.

* Working in technical support, it can be noted that, for many users, a similar lack of object permanence (mentally) can be seen. If a window covers another window for a period of time, long enough to have forgotten the other window, then fades out or otherwise disappears, the user will often think that the window from the past has just appeared or simply come up on the screen.

** [[Koan|If a tree falls in the woods and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound?]]

** Though it should be noted that it's the physical interaction with the measuring equipment that does it, and would presumably still happen if nobody paid attention.

** Quantum mechanics: the dreams stuff is made of!

* Many examples of technology (and all young animals) cease to function (sometimes followed by a violent end to their existence) if they are abandoned for even short periods of time.

* In some versions of dodgeball, getting someone out makes everyone ''they'' got out come back into the game.

* To a certain extent, our vision and memories. Experiments have been done that shown that the brain will actively alter what we think we see (and have seen previously) in order to make sense of the world. For instance, by slowly altering a picture or the letters on a page or simply ducking behind a counter, most people will insist that the changed version is what they saw to begin with and only realize the difference once you show the before and after.

** This has been taken to the extreme, with experiments having completely different people switch places and the test subject never even noticed.

* 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.

 

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