History Main / BetterIfNotBornPlot

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In the rather infamous "It's a Wishful Life" episode, Timmy is feeling so underappreciated that he wishes he was never born. He gets poofed out of existence, and Jorgen proceeds to show him how everyone's lives are without him. Timmy assumes that at least ''one'' person's life must be worse without him around... but nope. Apparently, if Timmy were never born, his parents would be rich, his friends successful and happy, Mr. Crocker normal, Vicky no longer evil, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the Cubs would win the World Series]], etc. It's so bad that Jorgen actually refuses to reverse the wish because this is proof Timmy is a [[{{Jerkass}} jackass]] not worth keeping around. Timmy then manages to get Jorgen's wand and tries to get his life back but realizes that the better thing would be to let the world exist without him. After giving his wand back, Jorgen reveals that the whole thing was a SecretTestOfCharacter for Timmy to show that you shouldn't help people to be appreciated but because helping people is the right thing to do, and undoes the wish so that Timmy will start being a better and more selfless person.

As a DeathTrope, this trope will have unmarked spoilers. Due to the nature of the trope, [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease adding real-life examples would be asking for trouble/impossible.]]

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* ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse: Subverted in one story, where Donald has [[GoodAngelBadAngel a good and a bad angel in his head]] that try to guide him. After he overhears his loved ones having a tea party without him and talking about how much he frustrates them, he gets angry and talks about how their lives would be worse if he hadn't been born. The good angel has been waiting for a moment like this to try and make Donald better his ways, and creates an imaginary story of what things would be like for his loved ones if he hadn't been born. However, the bad angel, who doesn't want him to improve, hijacks the plan and shows Donald this reality instead. In it, Huey, Dewey and Louie live with Scrooge; they have plenty of toys and fun and he enjoys having them there. Without Donald, Daisy dates Gladstone instead and he showers her with gifts. When Donald is at his lowest, the good angel breaks free and shows him the truth of it: Daisy and Gladstone are actually miserable as a couple, and Scrooge finds the nephews a nuisance and plans to have them shipped off to a boarding school.

* In the fic, [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/10628850 Finding Courage]] Dean yelled at Castiel and Castiel decided to kill himself. Gabriel showed Castiel what would happen if Uriel was the one who pulled Dean out of Hell.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13791825/1/Miraculous-Fade-Series Miraculous: Fade to Purple]]'', Bunnyx punishes Gabriel Agreste for his crime as Hawkmoth by trapping him in a world where he never existed, showing how much better everyone's lives are without his presence, with Emilie not in her coma, still a famous actress and one of Paris' superheroes, Adrien being allowed freedom for his entire life due to having a better father, and Marinette now being a major name in the fashion industry due to not wasting her time trying to impress Gabriel

* ''Film/SixteenWishes'': Abby gets a wish that transforms her into an adult, causing her to see what her friends' and family's lives are like without her in them. She realizes she was such a brat and that everybody was actually better off without her, and promptly changes her ways after undoing the wish.

* ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'': One Megamorphs has the kids be made aware that they're living in a much-worse alternate timeline (genocide and slavery are commonly accepted facts of society, women who don't StayInTheKitchen are sent to reeducation camps, the Yeerks are on the brink of victory thanks to a totalitarian government, Jake is a SmallNameBigEgo sociopath). They end up chasing the villain through time, and end up [[RetGone wiping him (or rather, his human host) from existence]] by ensuring his host's parents never met (as the host is aware of both timelines, he accepts the fate decided for him).
* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' -- ''Literature/TheCuckooClockOfDoom'': A variation in which the jerk isn't shown the result of their non-existence. Instead, her protagonist brother Michael unwittingly does this to his horrible little sister Tara, and decides the world (or at least his life) is much improved by her absence.

* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'': The finale of the original series, "Conundrum," has J.R. contemplating suicide when he is visited by his guardian angel, Adam, shows him how several key people in his life – his parents, siblings Gary and Bobby, Sue Ellen, Cliff Barnes, Pam Barnes, Kristin Shepard, Callie Harper and Ray Krebs – would have turned out if he had never been born. Some cases are for better, some for worse. In the end, Adam, [[spoiler:who reveals to J.R. that [[{{Satan}} he's not a guardian angel]] at all]], attempts to goad J.R. into suicide ... [[spoiler:but it is revealed in a reunion movie (aired several years) later that he shot the mirror]].

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': After becoming a WellIntentionedExtremist, Anna decides to kill Sam and spread his atoms across the universe so he can't be resurrected as a means to stop the Apocalypse. When that fails, she decides to go back in time to kill John and Mary Winchester and prevent Sam (and by extension Dean) from existing. Castiel is horrified and helps Sam and Dean return to the past to save their parents. However, at first, Sam is willing to consider that he would be better off not existing if it saves the world, and Dean eventually considers this possibility as well. They even go so far as to try and convince their mother to leave their father, [[spoiler:though she is already pregnant with Dean.]] The archangel Michael comes to the past to [[spoiler:kill Anna and save the Winchesters, making everything moot. Ironically, in later seasons, we are introduced to an alternate timeline in which Sam and Dean were never born, and it is considerably worse than anything in the main timeline or even the BadFuture shown in Season 5.]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* In WebVideo/ShaneDawson's sketch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcS0wrX5Jew "Why was I born?",]] the notion that everyone would be better off without Shane is deconstructed by the fact that in a timeline where Shane was never born, he wasn't able to be friends with a boy named Robbie, resulting in the latter's suicide due to feelings of isolation. Shane's guide points out that whatever everyone else feels towards him, it's the people who do miss him who matter most.
* Downplayed in the ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' episode, "Bowser Junior's 11th Birthday!"; When Junior's friends don't show up to his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's, Junior wonders what life would be like if he was never born. Junior gets knocked out by a skee-ball and meets God, who shows him what life would be like if he were never born. While the lives of most of Junior's friends are shown to be miserable if he wasn't born (Bowser died from doing nothing but watching ''[[ShowWithinAShow Charleyyy and Friends]]'' uninterrupted, Joseph died from starvation, Brooklyn T. Guy became homeless, and Cody [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking became interested in dating girls]]), Chef Pee Pee is shown to have successfully pursued his dream career of running his own five-star restaurant, since without having to babysit Junior, he had more time to focus on making delicious recipes.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In the rather infamous "It's a Wishful Life" episode, Timmy is feeling so underappreciated that he wishes he was never born. He gets poofed out of existence, and Jorgen proceeds to show him how everyone's lives are without him. Timmy assumes that at least ''one'' person's life must be worse without him around...but nope. Apparently, if Timmy were never born, his parents would be rich, his friends successful and happy, Mr. Crocker normal, Vicky no longer evil, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the Cubs would win the World Series]], etc. It's so bad that Jorgen actually refuses to reverse the wish because this is proof Timmy is a [[{{Jerkass}} jackass]] not worth keeping around. Timmy then manages to get Jorgen's wand and tries to get his life back but realizes that the better thing would be to let the world exist without him. After giving his wand back, Jorgen reveals that the whole thing was a test for Timmy to show that you shouldn't help people to be appreciated but because helping people is the right thing to do, and undoes the wish so that Timmy will start being a better and more selfless person.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'': In a ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}''-themed sketch parodying ItsAWonderfulPlot, Wimpy's guardian angel tries to deter him from committing suicide by showing him what would happen if he died. However it is then instead shown how much better the world is without his existence. Popeye has a full head of hair, he and Bluto open up their own bank, Olive Oyl has much sexier & curvier figure, Alice the Goon found a cure for cancer, there is no pollution or war, and hamburgers are free. After seeing all this, his guardian angel then apologizes for wasting Wimpy's time and then kicks him off the bridge himself.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' uses a variant where Helga dreams of what the world would be like if she disappeared in the present. Everybody celebrates that she's gone; Arnold, who caused her to disappear with a magic trick, is famous for it; and her parents' lives are much better. Eventually she wakes up and tries to fix all the bad things she did in that episode before falling asleep.

* ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats1991'': Discussed by Angelica to Chuckie in "[[Recap/RugratsS3E17MommysLittleAssetsChuckiesWonderfulLife Chuckie's Wonderful Life]]" where after the latter feels guilty for blaming his friends for a CD of his dad's getting lost (which [[ManipulativeBitch the former had discreetly stolen]]), she then says that [[KickTheDog it would be better if he were never born.]] The resulting dream, however, shows just the opposite: without his voice of reason and cautiousness, Angelica would bully Tommy and his parents into giving her whatever she wanted, Phil and Lil would be destructive monsters and Chas would lose his mind.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'': In the season finale, the Warden is [[spoiler:sentenced to spend eternity locked up, because his existence would culminate in his world domination]]. It's only when he escapes and gets a chance to see what happens ''without'' him there to horribly enslave the world that he's able to show the alternative (which isn't remotely as bad as world domination, but quite a bit ''freakier''). The force responsible for his fate doesn't buy it, leading to two very unsettling minutes of ContinuityNod as the two realities combine.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'' episode "World Without Me" subverts this, where Paddy the Leprechaun attempts to convince a depressed Garfield that it's a good thing he exists and Garfield sees Jon and Odie living in luxury and Arlene being Bruno's girlfriend. Garfield later learns that the Space Lasagnas would've been able to take over the Earth without his interference (even wishing Paddy to make him exist in the alternate timeline so he can fend off the race of alien pasta), Jon and Odie feel lonely without a cat around, Arlene has broken up with Bruno due to him not being the kind of guy she's into and Vito's pizzeria has gone out of business due to not having someone with Garfield's appetite as a regular customer. Ultimately, Paddy demonstrates to Garfield that without him, [[BreakingTheFourthWall the audience would just be watching static]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Zig-zagged In "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS6E12TimeTrap Time Trap]]"; After the kids accidentally destroy a PricelessMingVase again, Lisa turns Vanzilla into a TimeMachine to travel back in time to Lynn Sr. and Rita's wedding day and prevent them from receiving the vase in the first place. In doing so, the kids accidentally ruin the wedding and create an alternate timeline where they were never born. As a result, Lynn Sr. and Rita are having the time of their lives traveling the world in a sleeker and more efficient car, their house is also much cleaner and much more intact, [[GrumpyOldMan Mr. Grouse]] is much happier and healthier without the kids causing him stress, and Flip runs a decently managed and much cleaner convenience store. However, Lynn Sr. and Rita are now {{Child Hater}}s, Chunk works and lives at a junkyard without Luna to drive him to pursue his passion in music, and without Lincoln, Chandler is now the leader of Lincoln's circle of friends, [[ToxicFriendInfluence turning them into complete jerks]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh9XwSgCigc This PSA/advertisement for condoms]] begins with an elderly man robbing a bank with a huge gun, and goes backwards throughout his life to show him as a middle-aged man breaking into the house of a mother and her daughter, as a teenager causing mayhem on his bike, as a young boy cooking a kitten in the oven, and as an (unseen) newborn with his mother dying in childbirth. This is followed by the moment of his conception with her saying, "What's the worst that could happen?" followed by an image of a condom, implying that his existence and all the bad things he did could have been prevented by his father wearing one.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh9XwSgCigc This PSA/advertisement for condoms]] begins with an elderly man robbing a bank with a huge gun, and goes backwards throughout his life to show him breaking into the house of a mother and her daughter (at 46), causing mayhem on his bike (at 18), cooking a kitten in the oven (at 4), and his mother dying while giving birth to him. This is followed by the moment of his conception with her saying, "What's the worst that could happen?" followed by an image of a condom, implying that his existence and all the bad things he did could have been prevented by his father wearing one.

* The webartist avogado6's work usually concerns people being objectively better off dead. [[https://danbooru.donmai.us/pools/13930 "Regretless Life"]] has a man commit suicide and be shown that nobody cares (his "friends" just laugh, his coworker finds someone else to dump his extra work on, his mother never wanted him in the first place, and someone else adopts his cat). Rather than take revenge on them, the dead man is happy about this, as his only fear was that he'd make people sad at his passing, allowing him to go to the afterlife without regret.

* In the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' novel ''Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects'', Thrall travels to an alternate timeline where he died as an infant. As a result of this, [[TheAlcoholic Aedelas Blackmoore]] sobered up and trained his private army himself, gaining huge popular support and personally leading the charge into Blackrock Spire and killing Orgrim Doomhammer in single combat before giving the remaining orcs a choice: JoinOrDie. With his private army bolstered with the addition of the subjugated orcs, he returned to Lordaeron and killed King Terenas Menethil, Uther the Lightbringer and Anduin Lothar, usurping the throne of Lordaeron with Kel'Thuzad as his advisor, and sending Arthas into exile to Stormwind with his friend Varian taking him in. [[ForWantOfANail The result?]] Amongst other things, there is no Scourge or Burning Legion invasion without Kel'Thuzad to spearhead the efforts of the Cult of the Damned and thus the kingdoms of Lordaeron, Dalaran and Quel'Thalas do not fall, Arthas does not become a Death Knight [[BabiesEverAfter and instead has a son with Jaina]] whom they name [[DeadGuyJunior Uther]], and Gilneas wouldn't fall prey to the worgen curse as the worgen were only unleashed by Arugal as a defensive measure against the undead. [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome As the book's alternate timeline takes place some nineteen years after the end of the Second War, Azeroth would have somehow still have successfully dealt with the re-opening of Ahn'Qiraj and Deathwing's resurgence with the Eastern Kingdoms still standing]], as [[InSpiteOfANail these events are unaffected by Blackmoore's rise as usurper king of Lordaeron]]. For orcs, this would likely be a CrapsackWorld compared to the main timeline, as their fates are to either serve as part of Blackmoore's private army or be hunted down. For humans and elves, Blackmoore's rule over Lordaeron [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating was not a popular one]] and Blackmoore's Lordaeron is at odds with both Stormwind and Dalaran, but the fates of the northern human and elven kingdoms are likely preferable to falling prey to undeath and the worgen curse, [[RayOfHopeEnding and Arthas and Varian are working together to restore the Menethils to Lordaeron]].

# they decide to live, not necessarily just for themselves, but as a sense of revenge to make sure the people in their lives don't have a moment of joy in their deaths.