History Main / CosmicFlaw

* The main conflict of ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' is kickstarted when a botched spell to make [[LaserGuidedAmnesia everyone forget Peter Parker's identity]] interferes with reality. Doctor Strange manages to keep the imperfect spells locked in a magic box, preventing the universe from tearing itself apart as he finds a way to reverse it, but bad news: it's already managed to displace villains from [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy alternate]] [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries realities]] -- all of whom knew ''a'' "Peter Parker" -- and cause chaos. [[spoiler:The Green Goblin ends up destroying the box and reality begins fully collapsing from the weight of its new multiversal "visitors" -- it's only until Peter decides to complete the amnesia spell that [[CosmicRetcon everything is retroactively corrected]] and reality returns to normal.]]

* In ''ComicBook/EmperorJoker'', the Joker has [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu tricked his way]] into receiving Mxyzptlk's reality-warping powers and remade the world [[InTheirOwnImage in his image]]. Some people, primarily ComicBook/{{Superman}}, feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with their new reality. As they meet more powerful beings resisting the Joker's influence, it is revealed that as he pulls more and more strings, Joker will begin unraveling the very fabric of existence.

* This is the whole premise behind the mega-crossover fic ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops''. Yggdrasil, the WorldTree, is actually a gigantic computer and each of its branches is a different reality, and it so happens that that computer has crashed so badly that the gods -- better known as Admins -- are trying to fix it, and the only way to buy time is to have people in the various settings repeat their lives over and over and over again... and yes, the system is susceptible to viruses.

* ''Literature/HighSchoolDxD'': In volume 3, an enraged Kiba unlocks the [[SuperMode Balance Breaker]] form of his Sacred Gear [[SpontaneousWeaponCreation "Sword Birth"]], and performs the impossible act of [[YinYangBomb creating a holy sword out of demonic energy]]. This confirms some of the older characters' suspicions that both {{God}} and {{Satan}} are long dead, and the laws of reality are no longer operating as intended. In fact, Sacred Gears (originally created as a way for God to empower human champions) were never intended to be {{Evolving Weapon}}s at all, and the ability of some of them to kill gods is likewise a relatively new development.

* In ''ComicBook/EmperorJoker'', the Joker has [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu tricked his way]] into receiving Mxyzptlk's reality-warping powers and remade the world in his image. Some people, primarily Superman, feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with their new reality. As they meet more powerful beings resisting the Joker's influence, it is revealed that as he pulls more and more strings, Joker will begin unraveling the very fabric of existence.
* ''ComicBook/InfinityWars2018'': In ''Secret Warps'', a flaw in the warped reality causes it to start gradually falling apart, resulting in the already merged characters being merged further. It eventually turns out the flaw is [[spoiler:Stane Odinson, the merger of Ezekiel Stane and Loki, which failed because Loki avoided being merged in the first place. Once Stane is properly merged with another being, reality stabilizes.]]
* The plot of ''ComicBook/MarvelTheEnd'' turns out to center around one of these, created when ComicBook/WonderMan first [[ComicBookDeath came back to life]]. These unexplained resurrections were actually the universe trying to correct the balance between good and evil, but over time, the [[PlotHole inconsistencies this created]] would pile up, threatening the universe with annihilation. Thanos ended up using the omnipotent powers he had acquired from the Heart of the Universe to correct the flaw... but not before [[{{Tsundere}} ensuring that no one will ever remember that he did so]].
* Creator/GrantMorrison seems to enjoy these.
** The BigBad of their ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' [[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison run]], Doctor Hurt, claims to be "the hole in things" and "the piece that never fit." [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that he's not ''quite'' that bad, though he is a HumanoidAbomination.]]
** [[ComicBook/NewGods Darkseid]] becomes one of these in ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''; after his body was killed by Orion, he fell back in time and became a "black hole at the base of creation" that threatens to consume the entire multiverse. The series' ''other'' villain, Mandrakk, can be thought of as a metatextual version of this, as WordOfGod says he is essentially the personification of negative trends in the comic book industry itself.
** In the GrandFinale of his ''ComicBook/NewXMen'', set in a BadFuture, [[WaifProphet the Stepford Cuckoos]] make frequent reference to the fact that reality wasn't "supposed" to have gone down that path, and that there are "holes" in existence. In the final issue, the "hole" is revealed to be [[spoiler:Cyclops quitting the X-Men; the Phoenix, which "burns away what doesn't work," sets things back on track]].

* This is the whole premise behind the mega-crossover fic ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops''. Yggdrasil, the world tree, is actually a gigantic computer and each of its branches is a different reality, and it so happens that that computer has crashed; so badly that the gods - better known as Admins - are trying to fix it and the only way to buy time is to have people in the various settings repeat their lives over and over and over again. And yes, the system is susceptible to viruses.

* ''Fanfic/AHollowInEquestria'' utilizes this trope to explain why the story has broken from the main canon/timeline to such an extent. Discord admits that he can't fix this problem, as it exceeds even his capabilities.

-->'''Metatron''': If they get in, they will have reversed God's decree. Now, listen closely, because this bit's very important. Existence, in all its form and splendor, functions solely on one principle: God is infallible. To prove Him wrong would undo reality and everything that is. Up would become down, black would become white, existence would become nothingness. In essence, if they're allowed to enter that church, they'll unmake the world.

* This is the basic premise of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'': The titular Tower is the center of all existence, and it is starting to malfunction, which causes the different realities to drift, blend, and intersect at random intervals. Thus, the main characters are on a quest to find the Tower and repair whatever is wrong with it.

* In ''Literature/FunnyBusiness'', when [[RealityWarper Jeanette]] is upset about her poor performance in a math test, she alters mathematics to make the answers she gave the correct ones - physics soon follows suit, and a black hole approaches the solar system.
* Near the end of ''[[Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem Death's End]]'', it's revealed that the early universe consisted of ten dimensions rather than three, and the speed of light was near-infinite. Unfortunately, over billions of years [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Sufficiently-Advanced]] AbusivePrecursors have been using incomprehensibly-advanced weapons to create {{Negative Space Wedgie}}s that are reducing the dimensionality of the universe, and the speed of light itself, to destroy their enemies. Eventually the universe will be reduced to two dimensions, and then one, and then... [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 well]]...
* [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Middle-earth's]] cosmic flaw is named Morgoth. As the resident SatanicArchetype and GodOfEvil, he is, directly or indirectly, the ultimate source of everything that ever went wrong in the world and ever will, starting from when he interfered with its creation and tainted everything that came after with his essence. Fortunately, according to Middle-earth's apocalypse myth, Morgoth will eventually be killed and the world remade without his corrupting influence.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has the Time Cracks, which are [[ShapedLikeItself cracks, in time]], that obliterate people and things from the timeline when exposed to them. In "The Pandorica Opens", it's revealed that these cracks were formed from the TARDIS exploding after hitting a burst of time energy and overheating, but what caused the burst in the first place is never directly explained.

* In ''Radio/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'', Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent find themselves two million years in the past of Planet Earth -- which is a massive supercomputer devised, at mind-boggling-cost, to figure out the Question to the Answer of the existence of lifekind. Arthur realises they are at that point on the program where discovering The Answer is imminent. The Answer is of course Forty-Two. By a feat of lateral thinking, they discover the Question.

** One of these Dragon Breaks was used to avoid CuttingOffTheBranches of ''Daggerfall's'' multiple endings. Essentially, all seven of them--even mutually exclusive ones--came to pass. Later games mention this phenomenon as, "the Warp in the West."

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': The "Singularities" are occurrences in certain locations and time frame, where the history of the world is being threatened (usually due to an outsider's interference). The prologue has the protagonist being sent to the Singularity in [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Fuyuki, 2004 AD]] to fix the events within, before 7 other, bigger Singularities appear; thus the quest for saving the human history - the [[TitleDrop Grand Order]] - began. In the end, the Singularities are corrected, and the BigBad behind them all is defeated; but some time later, 4 smaller Singularities pop up and the protagonist has to fix them too.

* ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'': The villains are [[InvokedTrope Invoking]] this trope by attacking the fundamental concepts of "sickness" and "health" across TheMultiverse of the Perception Range. The Hospital, which embodies the concept of medical care, is falling apart, while Earth [[spoiler:suffers a full-fledged ZombieApocalypse]]. This turns out to be an AssimilationPlot to subsume the entire Range with an impossibly virulent "alpha malady", [[spoiler:using the heroine's infant son as the main infection vector]].

* The titular misfile in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}''- an error in reality that changes the lives of several people. Subverted however, in that most of the affected people's lives have improved because of it, and the only person who really considers it a problem is [[GenderBender Ash]].
** Book 2, Hell High, involves a second and far greater misfile created after the angels running reality allied with demons. They accidentally overloaded reality when comparing notes, and now Hell can produce human children.
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The Snarl, which was created due to the gods' disagreement of how the world should be. After the Snarl destroyed their world, they created ''another'' world to contain it, but this new world was not perfect either, and over time cracks ("rifts") started to appear in the fabric of reality. [[spoiler:This has happened ''billions'' of times, because the gods who created the Snarl had four "quiddities" between them, but it immediately slaughtered the Eastern Pantheon, the only source of green quiddity -- meaning that it is literally the realest thing in existence, as every world created to contain it since then only had three.]]
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', at one point there was a minor distortion of [[WarpWhistle teraport mechanics]]...which turned out to be a symptom of the Milky Way being pinched off into its own little universe, and then slowly destroyed from the inside out. It came very close to destroying the whole galaxy and would have if it weren't for a bizarre loophole in the physics of the anomaly.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''Literature/FineStructure'' whenever a "super science" is used a few times [[spoiler:the Imprisoning God]] erases the science from the universe itself. For an early example, an entire teleportation research building is sabotaged to teleport itself deep underground embedded in rocks along with all the researchers inside. And then teleportation became impossible.

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': [[MultiversalConqueror Lord Vyce]] states that [[EldritchAbomination the Entity]] originated as one of these - a glitch in his universe, that went on to consume it, before moving on to try and [[AssimilationPlot assimilate]] [[OmnicidalManiac and consume]] TheMultiverse. And it turns out to be a literal glitch too -- [[spoiler:specifically, [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Missingno]].]]
[[/folder]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "The Job", where Richard gets a job delivering pizzas. The very concept of [[BumblingDad Richard]] being employed is so unnatural that reality starts breaking apart all around him; normalcy is only restored once he gets fired.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': The episode "My Fair Mandy" focuses on getting ''[[CreepyChild Mandy]]'' of all people to smile. When she finally does, reality itself begins to fall apart, which causes the episode's narrator to scream out:

* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': After you kill Rom, a former scholar of Bergenwerth who has been transformed into an eldritch spider-caterpillar keeping Yarnham's fabric of reality stable, the illusion of the already gothic horror world breaks and the night sky turns a bright ''purple'' as all the remaining survivors you haven't saved go mad or turn into monsters.[[note]]Except that one witch who was a furry, who howl-neighs in delight.[[/note]]

* In the ''ComicBook/EmperorJoker'' arc of Franchise/{{Superman}} stories, the Joker has [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu tricked his way]] into receiving Mxyzptlk's reality-warping powers and remade the world in his image. Some people, primarily Superman, feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with their new reality. As they meet more powerful beings resisting the Joker's influence, it is revealed that as he pulls more and more strings, Joker will begin unraveling the very fabric of existence.
* ''ComicBook/InfinityWars2018:'' In ''Secret Warps'', a flaw in the warped reality causes it to start gradually falling apart, resulting in the already merged characters being merged further. It eventually turns out the flaw is [[spoiler:Stane Odinson, the merger of Ezekiel Stane and Loki, which failed because Loki avoided being merged in the first place. Once Stane is properly merged with another being, reality stabilizes.]]
* The plot of ''ComicBook/MarvelUniverseTheEnd'' turns out to center around one of these, created when ComicBook/WonderMan first [[ComicBookDeath came back to life]]. These unexplained resurrections were actually the universe trying to correct the balance between good and evil, but over time, the [[PlotHole inconsistencies this created]] would pile up, threatening the universe with annihilation. ComicBook/{{Thanos}} ended up using the omnipotent powers he had acquired from the Heart of the Universe to correct the flaw... but not before [[{{Tsundere}} ensuring no one would ever remember he did so]].

** The BigBad of his ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' run, Doctor Hurt, claims to be "the hole in things" and "the piece that never fit." [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that he's not ''quite'' that bad, though he is a HumanoidAbomination]].

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': In volume 3, an enraged Kiba unlocks the [[SuperMode Balance Breaker]] form of his Sacred Gear [[SpontaneousWeaponCreation "Sword Birth"]], and performs the impossible act of [[YinYangBomb creating a holy sword out of demonic energy]]. This confirms some of the older characters' suspicions that both {{God}} and {{Satan}} are long dead, and the laws of reality are no longer operating as intended. In fact, Sacred Gears (originally created as a way for God to empower human champions) were never intended to be {{Evolving Weapon}}s at all, and the ability of some of them to kill gods is likewise a relatively new development.

** The BigBad of his ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'' run, Doctor Hurt, claims to be "the hole in things" and "the piece that never fit." [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that he's not ''quite'' that bad, though he is a HumanoidAbomination]].

* In ''Radio/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent find themselves two million years in the past of Planet Earth -- which is a massive supercomputer devised, at mind-boggling-cost, to figure out the Question to the Answer of the existence of lifekind. Arthur realises they are at that point on the program where discovering The Answer is imminent. The Answer is of course Forty-Two. By a feat of lateral thinking, they discover the Question.

* The titular misfile in ''WebComic/{{Misfile}}''- an error in reality that changes the lives of several people. Subverted however, in that most of the affected people's lives have improved because of it, and the only person who really considers it a problem is [[GenderBender Ash]].

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', at one point there was a minor distortion of [[WarpWhistle teraport mechanics]]...which turned out to be a symptom of the Milky Way being pinched off into its own little universe, and then slowly destroyed from the inside out. It came very close to destroying the whole galaxy, and would have if if it weren't for a bizarre loophole in the physics of the anomaly.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', it's revealed that the creation of our universe was rushed and mishandled (they were on the clock and one of the people who were supposed to do it didn't want to), and as a result, it has cancer, which apparently comes in the form of PhysicalGod BigBad Jack Noir.

-> '''Narrator:''' "You fools! You messed with the natural order!"

* ''VideoGame/{{Wandersong}}'': The world is ending and it's because the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Overseers]] are becoming corrupted after living so long in an increasingly discordant universe. In short, the flaw in the world is that it’s grown old and is now sick and dying, and it’s up to TheChosenOne to make things right. To add to this, [[spoiler:the job of the Chosen One ''isn't'' to heal the Overseers and save the world, but rather to kill them as smoothly as possible before [[TheCorruption their corruption overtakes them and makes them monstrous shells of their former selves]], and hasten the world to its final dissolution so the creator-goddess Eya can make a new one. If left unchecked, they'll cause significant amounts of destruction and suffering in their wake before dying anyway, which will only make the Hero's job harder.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Wandersong}}'': The world is ending and it's because the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Overseers]] are becoming corrupted after living so long in an increasingly discordant universe. In short, the flaw in the world is that it’s grown old and is now sick and dying, and it’s up to TheChosenOne to make things right before the creator-goddess Eya ends the world to remake it anew. To add to this, [[spoiler:the job of the Chosen One ''isn't'' to heal the Overseers and save the world, but rather to kill them as smoothly as possible before [[TheCorruption their corruption overtakes them and makes them monstrous shells of their former selves]]. Not only does Eya need them dead before she can pull the plug, if left unchecked, they'll cause significant amounts of destruction and suffering in their wake before dying anyway, which will only make the Hero's job harder.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Wandersong}}'': The world is ending and it's because the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Overseers]] are becoming corrupted after living so long in an increasingly discordant universe. In short, the flaw in the world is that it’s grown old and is now sick and dying. To add to this, [[spoiler:the job of TheChosenOne ''isn't'' to heal the Overseers, but rather to kill them as smoothly as possible before [[TheCorruption their corruption overtakes them and makes them monstrous shells of their former selves]]. If left unchecked, they'll cause significant amounts of destruction and suffering in their wake before dying anyway, which will only make the Hero's job harder.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Wandersong}}'': The world is ending and it's because the Overseers are becoming corrupted after living so long in an increasingly discordant universe. To add to this, [[spoiler:the job of TheChosenOne ''isn't'' to heal the Overseers, but rather to kill them as smoothly as possible before [[TheCorruption their corruption overtakes them and makes them monstrous shells of their former selves]]. If left unchecked, they'll cause significant amounts of destruction and suffering in their wake before dying anyway, which will only make the Hero's job harder.]]