For Want of a Nail: Difference between revisions

[[File:2-200 1651.jpg|frame|[[Godwin's Law of Time Travel|If the Nazis just]] had [[The Bad Guy Wins|one more of these...]]]]

 

 

An [[Alternate Timeline]] or [[Elseworld]] (often in time travel stories) in which one small change has a ripple effect, resulting in massive changes. The technical term (from one of the seminal papers on chaos theory) is "sensitive dependence on initial conditions", but it's better known colloquially as "the butterfly effect". [[It's a Wonderful Plot]] is a subtrope where the protagonist is the nail. [[Butterfly of Doom]] is a subtrope where no good deed goes unpunished. The [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom]] is the character who steps on the butterfly/distracts the hero at the wrong moment/innocently reveals the [[Big Secret]] and [[The Scrappy|will be hated]] for it.

A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[What If]], and often a [[Sub-Trope]] of [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right]]. A [[Super-Trope]] of [["Close Enough" Timeline]].

 

 

Often overlaps with [[In Spite of a Nail]], because many stories wouldn't be that interesting if ''everything'' was different.

 

== Advertisements ==

* A Staples Business Depot TV commercial from the 90s, directly references the trope with a different scenario.

 

 

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' has a bad case of this; every arc it's something else in the initial factors—minor things like a man moving into the village or even Keiichi giving someone a ''doll''—that sets off a completely different scenario of bloody tragedy.

** The doll was important to the one receiving it. That's why it changes things.

** Much of this was explained. 17 and 18 were altered to be more powerful because of Trunks's arrival and the power increases of the other characters. Since Goku died in Trunks's timeline he saw no need and spent time making the androids into world domination machines (adjusting their personalities for the task) still strong enough to take on inexperienced Super Saiyans but still weaker than the main timeline versions. Gero probably altered himself and created Android 19 because of the appearance of more combatants with formidable power levels. This was because Trunks warned them about the androids and they trained to become more powerful. Also, in Trunks's timeline Goku was the one who fought Frieza on Earth by teleporting using instant transmission and the fight caused the virus to take affect when it did. Since he didn't go through any big fight, when Trunks killed Frieza, Goku never caused the virus's progress to accelerate and kill him when it did in Trunks's time.

*** The difference in strength between the main and alternate timeline versions of #17 & #18 was explained differently in the manga. In the ‘Trunks: The Story’ chapter when Gohan was fighting #17 & #18, immediately before #17 kills Gohan, #17 tells him that he’d been using no more than half of his power. After a short timeskip we see Bulma & Trunks debating the need for a time machine. Trunks thinks he’s already gotten strong enough to defeat 17 & 18, while Bulma thinks he’s too naïve since he was only at about Gohan’s level and Gohan was still killed. After this we see Trunks leave to fight them and the next panel we see they’ve put him in the hospital. There is no actual proof that the full magnitude of 17’s power (and possibly also 18’s) was revealed to Trunks before he went back in time. Assuming that Trunks was unaware of 17 & 18’s full power in his timeline, it would explain his surprise at their power in the main timeline. This would also indicate that the androids from the main timeline were actually just as strong as those in the alternate timelines and that Trunks was simply unaware of that fact.

* In ''[[Blood+]]'', {{spoiler|[[The Hero|Saya]] and [[Big Bad|Diva]]}} are twin sisters. Joel raised {{spoiler|Saya}} like a daughter, whereas Amshel kept {{spoiler|Diva}} locked in a tower, treating her like an experiment. When {{spoiler|Saya}} receives this history lesson, she can't help but sympathize with her sister, knowing full well that they could just as easily wound up with their roles switched.

 

== Comic Books ==

** One slightly silly issue showed the team being the nail for a change, preventing an alien invasion by [[It Makes Sense in Context|buying the last bagel in a bakery store.]]

 

* A popular concept is to rewrite the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books with Harry "having common sense" but they change so much (and his common sense is really having unexplained knowledge of what's happening next) that the actual fic barely counts.

** One of the few that actually manages to succeed is called ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4347535/1/Run_that_by_me_again Run That by Me Again]'', and that's only because it doesn't take itself too seriously, and it's a drabble serious instead of an actual rewriting.

* There is an entire subset of people who like to write [[Alternate History]] stories about our own world.

* The "Horseshoe Nails" series by Dyce is named after this trope. These River/Jayne friendship fics gradually become romance, and the 'Verse is changed at least somewhat for the better. In this case, the "nail" would be the first fic in the series, ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3272960/1/Two_Gorram_Days Two Gorram Days]''.

* The Nail in the first chapter of ''[[Misfiled Dreams]]'' is Rumisiel putting Ash's and Emily's files back in place. {{spoiler|Ash is an alcoholic cripple and Emily is dead.}}

* ''[[All He Ever Wanted]]'' starts off with the UK maintaining the alliance with Japan in the 1920s. [[It Got Worse|Stuff happens.]] But given [[Darker and Edgier|its]] [[Dark Fic|nature]], the POD is just the only ''visible'' difference from history and ''Hetalia'' canon.

* [[Sturgeon's Law|There is actually a]] [[Shipping|GinRan]] [[Bleach]]fic [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|titled]] [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6128781/1/All_For_the_Want_of_a_Nail "All for the Want of a Nail"], [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming|with each chapter referencing a line from the poem]]. While the chapters in question are ridiculously [[Brilliant but Lazy|short]], [[What If|the nail in question is]] [[Draco in Leather Pants|Gin wanting]] [[Papa Wolf|to stay back in Soul Society to raise]] [[But I Can't Be Pregnant|the kid he's suddenly having with Rangiku]].

* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6378285/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Sages_Stone Harry Potter and the Sage's Stone]: The description of the fic ''is'' the For Want of a Nail poem. It starts off with one [[The Dresden Files|Ebenezar McCoy]] ending up in Godric's Hollow the night Voldemort {{spoiler|is turned into a horcrux-spirit-thing}}, and salvages young Harry from the place before Dumbledore arrives.

* ''[[Luminosity]]'' is entirely based around this. In a [[Romance Novel]] where the ''point'' is that the plot we see revolves around Bella, what happens if Bella is smart and introspective? Despite the plot being all-but unrecognizable, that is the only change until the story starts.

* ''[[Team 8]]''. The indirect nail is Kurenai getting a [[Dark and Troubled Past]] that has (so far) only been alluded to. The more direct one is driven in during the first chapter: Kurenai personally asks for [[Naruto]] Uzumaki for her genin team (sending Kiba over to Team 7 with Sasuke and Sakura), resulting in, among other things, a much more mature, focused and introspective Naruto.

* A popular topic among fans of ''[[The Legend of Spyro]]'' is what if Cynder's egg had been saved by Ignitus instead of Spyro's. What ''isn't'' clear is whether this makes things better or worse off.

* ''[[Ultimate SpiderWoman|Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light]]'' uses this trope in that {{spoiler|Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson were ''both'' bitten by genetically-engineered spiders on that fateful field trip to Empire State University, causing them both to develop spider-powers independently. Their own particular backgrounds also led them to each become costumed superheroes on their own, independent of one another.}}

* The ''[[Back to The Future]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3993367/1/The_Almanac_Chronicles The Almanac Chronicles]'' has several, but one was very significant to the history of the [[Alternate Timeline]]. {{spoiler|President John F. Kennedy is ''not'' assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963, instead being in Sacramento at the time. He is re-elected in 1964 in a landslide, and his supporters campaign to repeal the 22nd Amendment. Kennedy himself does not benefit, but his successor Richard M. Nixon does, serving as President as late as 1984.}}

** Also, the nail in question was never mentioned but happened sometime in the 7th year of the original timeline, in which cfor some reason the horcrux hunt took longer than it should have, resulting in a higher casualty rate.

** Because Kakarot never hit his head, he stayed wicked and bloodthirsty, and was never renamed "Goku".

** Since Bulma didn't have help from Goku, she failed in her first quest for the Dragon Balls. The ones she was able to collect got stolen by the Pilaf Gang, and with no means of getting them back, she had to return home in defeat.