Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Difference between revisions

#Usually only one attempt to correct it is necessary or in fact possible.

Often the adventurer has to travel to fix things, combining this premise with [[Adventure Towns]]. This premise has also been applied to literature rather than time, with characters trapped in a [[Portal Book]] interfering with the book's original plot and being forced to set things back on track to resolve "the right way."

=== Anime & Manga ===

* The plot of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' once the protagonists realize that they've {{spoiler|been trapped in a [[Groundhog Day Loop]]}} of murder, insanity and betrayal. {{spoiler|Rika and Hanyuu knew from the beginning, and were trying to save the town, but eventually nearly gave up.}}

* ''[[Generator Gawl]]'' seems to fall into this category, seeing how the only reason Auge was able to take over was because Gawl, Koji, and Ryu went back in time to stop them. In the end Ryu was the one who created the include cells and gave Auge the ability to take over, which is what caused them to go back in the first place. Ouch, I think my brain just exploded.

* An attempt at this is the driving force behind the [[Myth Arc]] of ''[[Rave Master]]''. The series inverts the trope because changing history back to the way it was is the ''bad guys''' plan, as the original timeline's world was utterly destroyed save one survivor, who was able to change history to create the Rave world. On top of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch]] [[Clock Roaches|Clock Roach]] out to undo the paradox involved, most of the late-story baddies want to see the "false" world destroyed.

=== Fan Works ===

* In [[Heta Oni]], {{spoiler|Italy has been rewinding time again and again so that everyone can get out of the [[Haunted House]] alive.}}

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''

=== Literature ===

* The ''[[Care Taker]]'' Trilogy focuses on people from a future where the world's ecosystem has been ruined coming back to the present: the "Turning Point", or the point at which it was theorized to still be possible to reverse the damage done. Their foes, who actually ''like'' the future as it is, also come back, with the aim of speeding up the damage, and ensuring their own victory.

* ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' has this with the Ghost of Christmas Future warning of the deaths of both Tiny Tim and Scrooge, which Scrooge then fixes thanks to [[Scare'Em Straight]].

* In ''Mergers'' by Steven L. Layne, the titular Mergers must go back in time to make sure that a man named Michael Quinn dies as a young boy.The reason why is that {{spoiler|Senator Broogue went back in time before the Mergers were born and saved Michael from dying, thus causing the creation of a society with only one race.}} Somewhat different from the usual situation, in that usually it is the opposite(them saving the person).

* Throughout the early ''[[Nightside]]'' series, John Taylor {{spoiler|is pursued by the Harrowing, constructs sent from an [[After the End]] future to kill him before he can begin investigating the Nightside's origins. A bit of a subversion, as it's implied the constructs' creators are motivated as much by bitterness and revenge as a need to avert What Went Wrong; else, they could've just sent someone to ''tell'' John his investigation would kick off an apocalypse, so he'd turn down the case.}}

** Poul Anderson's ''The Corridors of Time'' has essentially the same plot, with added saga and mythology.

* Elizabeth Haydon's ''[[Symphony of Ages]]'' is this all over.

* Appears to be the premise of the lamentably late NBC series ''[[Journeyman]]''.

** One episode revolves around him trying to undo something he did by accidentally leaving his digital camera in the 70s. He returns home to find that computer technology is decades ahead of what it was (holographic screens and video-newspapers are commonplace), but his son was never born (he was delayed at work due to a computer error), replaced instead by a daughter who was conceived a few days later. Despite his wife's objections, he goes back and fixes it.

* ''[[Seven Days]]'' is entirely about this trope: a time machine allows a government agent to go seven days back in time in order to prevent the catastrophe of the week from taking place.

* Another example of this is the CBC drama, ''[[Being Erica]]'', where the majority of episodes were centred around her travelling back to a point in her past where she tries to put right something, she believes, went wrong in her life. Normally it would turn out that actually she needed to learn a lesson from that event and her changes wouldn't help her life that much. {{spoiler|There were also a couple of episodes that varied from this format but stayed true to this theme. One where she was required to make changes to the life of the man sending her back in time, another where she managed to make a huge change in her life by stopping her brother's accidental death. This ended up to make her life drastically different and he still died but at a different time in his life and in a different way. Also, in another episode she had to travel forwards in time to learn about another time traveller's life as the version of him she knew in her present time was actually the past version of his actual self. He was refusing to make the changes he needed to and she had to convince him to make the changes he needed to and return to his own time.}}

* ''[[Angel]]'' [[Crossover]] with [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]], "I Will Remember You."

* We learn in the end of ''[[Arc the Lad]] 2'' that {{spoiler|It was the reason behind Arc's father disappearance: he tried to set things right, and failed}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy]]''

** The point of ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]-2'' is to fix the timeline and help everyone find happiness while averting future disaster. {{spoiler|They fail, and cause a massive [[Time Crash]].}}

* In ''Dark Fall 2: Lights Out'', Parker stumbles into a time portal while investigating the disappearance of some lighthouse keepers, and discovers {{spoiler|both the reason they vanished, and that ''he'll'' be blamed by history for murdering them if he doesn't fulfill this trope}}. Likewise, while ''Darkfall: The Journal'' {{spoiler|doesn't actually involve time travel, it does give the hero a chance to avert What Went Wrong, by foiling a supernatural menace ''in the present''}}.

* Implied in-game and [[Wild Mass Guessing|inferred by fans]] in regards to ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'', and also one of the cornerstones of [[Continuity Snarl|the infamous Split-Timeline Theory]]. The whole game deals with Link's efforts kick Ganondorf off the usurped throne of Hyrule ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|which Link was sort of responsible for in the first place]]), which he succeeds at with the help of Zelda and the sages. Then Zelda sends Link back to before all that happened so Link can experience the childhood he was robbed off. Link therefore uses this opportunity to warn Zelda and everyone else of how Ganondorf was planning to steal the Triforce, which leads to Ganondorf being captured and executed. However, {{spoiler|this sets up the plot for ''[[Twilight Princess]]'', where Ganondorf survives said execution and is trapped in the Twilight Realm, where he gives Zant the power to usurp the throne of the Twili}}. So things were set right, but they ended up going wrong in a different way.

* In the [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[[Jigsaw]]'', the ''antagonist'' is trying to set right what once went wrong (preventing the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, for example), while the player character must try to keep history on track. (At least, that's how it starts; then it gets a bit [[Alternate History|more complicated]].)

=== Anime & Manga ===

* In the ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' manga, this is Chao Lingshen's motivation for messing around with her great grandfather's childhood, although whether she had an absurdly complicated [[Xanatos Gambit]] set up, or was simply playing [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] as her alterations made foreknowledge less useful is never made clear. She actually fixed the problem she went back to solve with the changes wrought by her first trip, but later makes a second one to tie up a loose end or two before the [[Cosmic Deadline]].

* Archer in ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' attempts to do this by ''creating'' a [[Temporal Paradox]]. Archer is not so much setting right what went wrong as setting wrong what once went ''really'' wrong.

* ''[[Yakitate!! Japan]]'': Kazuma's last bread of the second [[Tournament Arc]] is so amazingly delicious, it ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|sends the judge back in time to RetCon his own mother's death]]''.

=== Comic Books ===

* In the "Camelot Falls" storyline in the ''[[Superman]]'' comics, a prophetic sorcerer tells him what he needs to do to avert the extinction of humanity years down the line. In a subversion of this trope, Superman refuses to comply, namely because "what he needs to do" involves not preventing the deaths of countless innocents.

* The mission of Samaritan in ''[[Astro City]]''. He actually did set things right before the series started, but now his own time period has [[Stranger in a Familiar Land|changed beyond recognition]].

* [[Cable]] has apparently set as his ultimate goal to set right ''everything'' that went wrong, like preventing [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Apocalypse]] from waking up. (He then wakes up Apocalypse himself by accident. [[Good Job Breaking It Hero|Good job]].)

* Archie's ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series:

* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' "Time Crime" miniseries, someone screwed up the timeline so that Klingons aren't aggressive warmongers and the Romulan Empire doesn't exist. Despite the positive bits, Kirk and Spock still have to fix everything because the overall outcome would ultimately be a [[Bad Future]]. That and, as bad as Romulans are, they don't deserve to be ''erased from time''. In one Tearjerker moment, Kirk realizes that "fixing" the timeline will mean losing his son David (in the real timeline David was killed by Klingons), and he gives his son one final hug before embarking on his trip through time.

** In ''Elfangor's Secret'', the team is sent back to prevent Visser Four from changing key events in the past. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, those changes were much more far-reaching than either side anticipated, and would've prevented the Holocaust, though likely still making a worse future. So in order to [[Reset Button|return the present to normal]], the team has to [[Shoot the Dog|essentially condemn millions to death]]. Eventually they decide on paradoxing out the events of the novel, deciding that at least this way it happened naturally.}}

** In ''In the Time of the Dinosaurs'', they must sabotage a nuclear device and sacrifice an entire colony of aliens, or else the Cretaceous Era won't end on schedule.

* In the [[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban|third Harry Potter book]], Harry and Hermione have the chance to go back and save two innocent lives.

* [[Dean Koontz]]'s ''Lightning'' {{spoiler|features a time-travelling protagonist who goes back to his own time, after having thwarted a Nazi Time Travel plot, and tells Winston Churchill about the Cold War. When he returns to the future, The Cold War never happened, as the Allies kept on pushing eastward after the Nazis surrendered, defeating the communists before the Cold War ever started.}}

* Naturally, ''[[Life On Mars]]'' and ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' have played with this: in Sam's case, it was finding out why his father abandoned him, as well as arresting the serial killer who'd kidnapped his girlfriend and a crime lord who'd had a witness in his custody murdered; in Alex's, it was preventing her parents' death by car bomb. Their success rates are... varied; Sam eventually wound up ''convincing'' his father to skip town, because there was that little matter of a murder and racketeering charge if he stayed...

* ''[[Doctor Who]]''

** Not-quite-subverted in "Genesis of the Daleks". The Time Lords send the Doctor back in time to the creation of the Daleks, with the goal of either preventing their creation, or at least making them less aggressive. While there, the Doctor is captured by the Daleks' creator and is made to detail every Dalek vulnerability he knows about. Being the universe's resident expert on fighting Daleks, this would have been a catastrophe had he not [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|destroyed]] the tape before leaving the scene.

** Possibly subverted in "Resurrection of the Daleks", where the Daleks used the Doctor's interference in their creation to justify an attack on Gallifrey.

** [[Russell T. Davies]]' view was that this Dalek-Time Lord skirmishing eventually led to the Time War of the new series, thus subverting the trope. Alternatively, this could be playing the trope straight, as the Time War may actually be a ''better'' outcome than what the Time Lords originally predicted.

* In the ''Mirror, Mirror'' series, there is exactly ''one'' person who was trained to do this exactly ''once'', as revealed in the final episode. Everything prior to this point had already happened in her mentor's past.

* More of a case of "Set right what we messed up" but in an episode of ''[[Hannah Montana]]'', Miley and Jackson travel back in time and mess up their parents meeting. Cue a back to the future style disappearance for Jackson as Miley tries to set things right. It was probably [[All Just a Dream]].

* Done in ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'', with heavily debated success. A robot, the Blue Senturion, came from a thousand years in the future to warn the heros about a war two years later... and was intercepted by the villains, who took the message, and deleted it from his memory. Not only did the war still happen, but it happened a year earlier than scheduled. On the one hand, an all-out win for Team Evil was averted, but on the other, [[Power Rangers in Space|it still didn't]] [[Heroic Sacrifice|end very]] [[Bittersweet Ending|happily]].

** She also dies while killing him. However, her younger self realizes that time travel is possible and uses it to re-invent the technology. This time using it to help people ({{spoiler|she dies when another time traveler blows up Washington, D.C., in the future}}).

** Another episode involves a popular presidential candidate traveling on a plane and seeing an intangible image of a woman claiming to be from a [[Bad Future]] where his plane crashed (because of another time traveler's accidental interefence), and his ineffectual opponent ended up winning. She convinces him to jump out of the plane by claiming that she will use future technology to halt his fall moments before hitting the ground. This appears to happen, but then she explains that she is here to kill ''him'', as he is the one who will become [[President Evil]] due to his paranoia. The falling scene repeats, and nobody catches him this time. The plane lands without problems.

** Another episode had an angel go back to that time to try to kill their mother before they were born. While she seemingly succeeds in killing their father, he is brought back as a vessel for Archangel Michael, who kills the angel.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''

** Also played straight in the movie ''Continuum'' as listed in the "Films" section.

* The ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode "The Last Man" has Sheppard thrown 48,000 years into the future, where a program Rodney left behind recounts a long [[It Got Worse]] story of the intervening years and arranges to send Sheppard back to fix everything. He even gives Sheppard some crucial information, like Teyla's location at the time, so Sheppard can change what happened for the better.

* The conclusion of the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'' "Year of Hell" serial. Or for that matter, the conclusion to the series altogether.

* In an episode of ''[[The Flash (TV series)|The Flash]]'', Barry Allen is accidentally thrust 10 years into a future where Central City has been taken over by his brother's killer, Nicholas Pike, and where an underground group of citizens were waiting for [[Second Coming|the Flash to return]] in order to set things right.

* Used in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'':

** In Sonic's story, he eventually ends up time-traveling to a [[Bad Future]], and discovering that it was caused by the death of Princess Elise, very shortly after the date that Sonic had just left. Sonic travels back to rescue her.

* The plot of ''[[Ratchet and Clank Future A Crack In Time]]''. {{spoiler|Subverted in that it turns out to be impossible and/or will only result in tearing the universe apart.}}

* Fails ''spectacularly'' in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' series.

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' begins with Link dumped into an alternate reality, [[Baleful Polymorph|unwillingly transformed into a harmless Deku Scrub]], and forced to watch helplessly as the world around him goes to hell in a handbasket before its eventual destruction at the end of the third day. Then Link goes back in time, regains his true form, and relives the same three days [[Groundhog Day Loop|over and over]] as he gradually meets and helps everyone the [[Big Bad]] has hurt, until he is finally strong enough to stop it all from happening.

* The entire plot of ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'' centers around an attempt to do this. Shao Kahn ends up winning the events of Armageddon, leading Raiden to send a message back to his past self to try and fix this. {{spoiler|He ends up nearly bungling the whole thing. In the end, every single one of the Forces of Light save for Johnny Cage, Sonya, and himself are dead, their souls taken by Quan Chi. Shao Kahn is defeated, averting THAT particular Armageddon event, but Quan Chi has an army of powerful souls at his command now, and the ending implies that Shinnok and the Netherrealm are preparing to attack next...}}

** Also, explicitly referenced in an episode where Peter [[It Makes Sense in Context|becomes a Jehovah's Witness (among other things)]] and explains Jesus like this, leading to a ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' sight gag.

** And now Stewie and Brian are credited as using this to CREATE THE FAMILY GUY UNIVERSE. LITERALLY. So that's a... set half-right what was elsetime random-in-the-void? It gets played straight in the same episode when Stewie's sperm-brother tries to erase one of his more 'European' ancestors to erase Stewie.

{{reflist}}