Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Difference between revisions

Moreover, there are instances where characters who ''didn't'' time travel get Ripple Effect Proof Memory anyway, which may or may not be justified with some [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. However, the only way to really avoid these problems is to set the story in a universe where [[You Already Changed the Past]] and that can be pretty hard to pull off, especially on a regular basis.

 

 

 

The name refers to the "[[Delayed Ripple Effect|ripple effect]]" from the ''[[Back to The Future]]'' films.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* In ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', Haruhi {{spoiler|accidentally sets the last two weeks of summer to [[Groundhog Day Loop|repeat endlessly]] because she doesn't want it to end}}. Nobody has ripple proof memory and Haruhi has the least ripple proof memory of all. The rest of the Brigade do however, {{spoiler|experience déjà vu}} at an increasing rate. They've gone through {{spoiler|about 15 thousand repetitions, with realizations of what's going on increasing in frequency}}. Yuki, though, apparently {{spoiler|exists partially outside time or something and remembers every... single... time. Yes, she is now subjectively several hundred years older or something close to that}}.

* Happened in ''[[Source Code]]''. The protagonist is on a mission to stop a bomb from blowing up a train. He has 8 minutes. Every time he fails (and hence dies), when he is reset, he remembers what happened in the previous run. This is ''Justified'' by the nature of the Source Code. However, there is an interesting twist at the end.

* ''[[The Butterfly Effect]]'' However, it should be mentioned that each time the protagonist changed the past, he received the memories of his own life (in the new timeline) up to the present. However, the memories weren't just there—they arrived as a searing burst of information (being physical written into his brain), and co-existed with his old memories, giving him a [[Psychic Nosebleed]].

* The movie ''[[Frequency]]'' gives this a [[Hand Wave]]; after the main character inadvertently changes the past, he talks about how he sort of remembers it both ways. Though this is then dropped for the rest of the film, where he only remembers the original timeline after {{spoiler|his mother is killed in the past, and a few other changes happen from his attempts to fix that.}}

* The disadvantages of this are touched on at the end of ''[[Time Cop]]'', where the hero is surprised to learn he now has a wife and son....

* In ''[[Johnny and The Bomb]]'' everybody but Johnny forgets their time travel experiences, although Kirsty remembers them again after finding a piece of physical evidence.

* Intentionally invoked in ''[[Discworld/Night Watch|Night Watch]]''. Thanks to [[Theory of Narrative Causality|narrativium]], history is mutable and subject to popular perception, so it doesn't matter if Vimes' memories of the "original" version are different as long as events play out roughly the same.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* This happens to anyone Sissel helps in ''[[Ghost Trick]]'' (by way of going back in time and preventing deaths), himself included. Granted, {{spoiler|the end of the game leaves us on a note where the player (with the help of three other ghosts) just prevented the entire game from happening, so no one remembers except Sissel, who is still dead at the very end, and the other ghosts, restored to their natural lives.}}

* Used to chilling effect on ''[[Undertale]]'', as part of its [[Deconstruction Game|deconstruction]] of [[JRPG]] clichés. That your player character remembers its actions after a reset (particularly, that they remember having offed a friendly character) can be weird and unsettling, but when an antagonistic character actually remembers your actions and use it against you it becomes scary as hell. {{Spoiler|People that possess or have possessed the power of SAVE can remember former iterations of the timeline, and both the player character and the villanous Flowey have it. The monsters of the Underworld are unaware of the RESETs, albeit some of them have some sensitivity to your former actions, ranging from how some bosses realize that you listened their speech before, to the bizarre not-quite-remembering-past-loops-but-sensing-something-is-wromg awareness Sans exhibit.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

* At the climax to ''[[Red vs. Blue the Blood Gulch Chronicles]]'', {{spoiler|Wyoming's time-resetting power resets his foes' memory, with the exception of Tucker, whose alien sword prevents the effect and lets him and Church beat Wyoming.}}

** Has someone at RT read {{spoiler|the [[Sword of Truth]]}}? Just saying...

 

== Western Animation ==

* After [[Johnny Test]] changed Porkbelly's history, he had to take a test about the city's history. He failed it because he remembered the original history and not the new history.

* ''[[Dog City]]'': Baron goes back to the time the pilgrims purchased the new world from the natives and made a better offer: squeak toys. This created a Bad Future where he rules. Somehow, Ace and Eddie had Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory and, after visiting a timeline where Eddie ruled, went back to the past and made an even better offer: a technologically advanced (even for present time standards) fire hydrant the heroes took from the Eddie-ruled timeline.

 

== Real Life ==