History Main / LawOfConservationOfNormality

The solution? Everything is mutable, ''except'' for the vicissitudes of life that everybody seems to face. For example: Imagine a David R. Rand. He's a normal guy, he works at a 7-11 and goes to college. One day, TheDevil steals his soul! Furious, David astrally projects himself into the body of a [[CthulhuMythos Fungus from Yuggoth]] and battles the Devil in a devastating fight that levels Denver. Defeated, the Devil spitefully cracks open the gates of hell, releasing a plague of flesh-devouring ghouls, and retreats.

:: ''No matter what else gets changed, and no matter how irreversible those changes are, basic societal practices and mores will remain in sync with the culture the work is written in.''

* Franchise/{{Spider-Man}} [[TropeMaker invented]] this, pioneering the idea of a main character who was also an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent. The most obvious example is how he still has to work for a living despite being able to whip up a multi-purpose, industrial-strength adhesive in his basement.

* In the WhateleyUniverse, superheroes and supervillains have been on the loose for more than a century. Supervillains have tried to destroy the world multiple times, and have unleashed horrific plagues. Major cities have been attacked. International media may be under the control of supervillains or international conspiracies or the heavily anti-mutant Goodkind family. And yet, television shows and movies and pop culture are completely unchanged, with only minor changes in the daily lives of normal people. (Except there are popular programs like 'HeroWatch' and the Quinn Martin-like 'Tales of the MCO'.)

* ''Webcomic/{{Fans}}'': Ever since the GovernmentConspiracy [[ConspiracyRedemption gave up]], people have just learned to live with, well, [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya aliens, time travellers, sliders, and espers]] to the point that Wendy's now offers pails of raw meat juice in case any vampires show up. [[PennyAndAggie High school]], apparently, is [[strike:no longer taken wholesale from Archie and Mean Girls]] a bit different.

* Right after the end of DCComics' ''Our Worlds at War'' crossover event, the World Trade Centers were destroyed. Superman was depicted as being profoundly moved by 9/11. So a few thousand people being killed by terrorists is more disturbing to Superman than an ''interplanetary war'' with the living embodiment of entropy who destroyed "countless" other planets just on his way to Earth. Over ''eight million'' Earthlings were confirmed dead.

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' spends so much time on and does such a good job of the characters' personal lives that you might easily forget there has been an inter-dimensional warlord apparently trying to kill them since 2002. Of course, that's just a few months in [[WebcomicTime plot-time]].

* {{Spider-Man}} [[TropeMaker invented]] this.

* Garfield complains about this in an episode of GarfieldAndFriends where he prevents an alien invasion of Earth [[WorldOfWeirdness (again)]]. Despite having prevented the enslavement of humanity, no one saw him so Garfield has to simply resume his normal life with no reward.

** It is doubtful these stories will stay in continuity [[ComicBookTime for long]], considering that the only far reaching consequence of them was CaptainAmerica's TheUnmasking. Even then writers can always explain that the bombers had some [[JusticeSocietyOfAmerica hero-repellents]] and so supers couldn't do anything.

* In the ''{{Paradise}}'' setting, this happens in stories set in 2009 and beyond, when the [[TheUnmasquedWorld masquerade has been broken]] and the fact that humans have been changing into potentially [[GenderBender gender-switched]] {{Funny Animal}}s (though [[InvisibleToNormals normals could not see the change]]) is known to the world. One of the later stories in the setting, "Family Tree", involves a family holiday get-together after the Change has become widely known. Most of the family has Changed, and the last holdout's impending Change (and the possibility of it involving [[GenderBender gender bending]]) is treated as a perfectly ordinary matter. [[spoiler:Then when said holdout ''does'' Change, and gender-change, the rest of the family takes it in such stride that the hapless Changee is more than a little overwhelmed.]]

** Robo meets many historical celebrities, but as an ally / friend / enemy rather than the defining part of their lives.

* ''Webcomic/{{Fans}}'': Ever since the GovernmentConspiracy [[ConspiracyRedemption gave up]], people have just learned to live with, well, [[SuzumiyaHaruhi aliens, time travellers, sliders, and espers]] to the point that Wendy's now offers pails of raw meat juice in case any vampires show up. [[PennyAndAggie High school]], apparently, is [[strike:no longer taken wholesale from Archie and Mean Girls]] a bit different.

* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' is designed to adhere to this as much as possible for a series that involves sentient robots and talking dinosaurs.

* ''AtomicRobo''.

** And of course New York has had worst things than 9/11, from Magneto turning it into a death camp, Hydra ''nuking'' a part of it, etc.

* Averted in ''ExMachina'', when the end of the first issue reveals that [[spoiler:Mitchell managed to save the second of the Twin Towers. [[MyGreatestFailure And he still thinks he should've been able to save both.]]]]

* ''HaruhiSuzumiya'' is almost like a StealthParody of this trope, mainly revolving around Kyon. Despite knowing that his friends are, respectively, an omnipotent RealityWarper, a member of a shady organization of psychics, a member of an equally shady organization of time travellers, and a humanoid interface for an [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm incomprehensible alien being]]...he seems determined to live a normal life, and is frequently irritated by the supernatural distractions. It's also an InvokedTrope, since they all conspire to make the omnipotent one's life ''seem'' normal so that she won't realize how powerful she is. But this sometimes backfires and makes her unwittingly warp reality for silly reasons, such as in the Endless Eight arc, where she creates an endless GroundhogDayLoop because [[spoiler:[[SeriousBusiness Kyon hasn't done his homework]]]].

:: ''No matter what else gets changed, and no matter how irreversible those changes are, basic societal practices and mores will remain in sync with the culture the work is written in.''

[[AC: {{Anime}}]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* {{Spider-Man}} [[TropeMaker invented]] this.

** And of course New York has had worst things than 9/11, from Magneto turning it into a death camp, Hydra ''nuking'' a part of it, etc.

* ''AtomicRobo''.

[[AC:WebComics]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'' plays [[MindScrew head games]] with this trope. Ash has two freaking ''angels'' living in her house, plus a third angel running around causing mischief. The plot [[CerebusSyndrome bounces]] back and forth between [[CelestialBureaucracy problems in the heavenly bureaucracy]], [[DemonicPossession the dark influence of malevolent spirits]], and the everyday issues [[GenderBender Ash]] and [[ResetButton Emily]] have as a result of the titular misfile.
* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' also uses this trope heavily. You accidentally brought a man-eating alien to Earth, and after running amok for a couple weeks, it shows up at your house asking for help fitting into society? Give it a job as your secretary. A demon arrives from the Dimension of Pain to try to steal your soul each Halloween? Throw a big Halloween party advertising a real live demon as the main attraction, and charge admission. Your house is haunted by hundreds of ghosts? Try to get them to chip in on rent.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

** Subverted later on, when changes ARE shown. For one thing, Marvel's movies went in weird directions, and there is a functioning moon base.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

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** Well, this makes some amount of sense, in that the ''writers'' were likely a great deal more disturbed by the deaths of a few thousand real people than by eight million people they just made up. But even in-universe, it's reasonable for Supes to be more affected emotionally by something his adopted planet did to itself than by something done by an external enemy.

* Subverted in ''ExMachina'', when the end of the first issue reveals that [[spoiler:Mitchell managed to save the second of the Twin Towers. [[MyGreatestFailure And he still thinks he should've been able to save both.]]]]

* ''AstroCity'' refines this to a fine art. An early issue had a recent immigrant to the town (from Chicago) witness to an attack by a gigantic storm elemental. Heading to the roof to watch the fight between the monster and all of the town's superheroes, he sees a bunch of the people in his building have gathered. When he asks one woman where her kids are, she tells him that they're working on their homework. Since if the city isn't destroyed, there'll still be school tomorrow. This almost terrifies him into leaving town the next day, but when he sees how quickly the place is cleaned up and how everyone pitches in, it charms him into staying.