History Main / PeggySue

Compare GroundhogDayLoop, in which the MentalTimeTravel is a repeating short-term loop; for loops which repeat but which are nevertheless on the same scale as a Peggy Sue, see GroundhogPeggySue. The video game equivalents are SaveScumming, where the player intentionally loads an earlier save after having gained the knowledge of what is going to happen in the future, and NewGamePlus, where the player's character itself retains stats and equipment from a previous playthrough. Also see AllJustADream, for which this trope is often played as a resolution. For fanfiction, this trope can follow TheStationsOfTheCanon.

[[AC:Literature/Wicked]]

* The Wicked fanfic "Almost Like a Prophecy" has Elphaba accidentally sending herself back through time through her magic, which she uses as a second chance to fix what she sees as her mistakes right. Namely, to protect those she loves.

* Meltalviel's ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3814006/1/ For Good]]'' is a story which starts off a year after ''Wicked'' ''ends'' and throws Glinda into the body of herself (G''a''linda) shortly before "Dear Old Shiz." Thrown for a twist in that she immediately decides to change things ''[[TitleDrop for good]]'' and that she's not the only one finding herself back at Shiz.

* The Wicked fanfic "Almost Like a Prophecy" has Elphaba accidentally sending herself back through time through her magic, which she uses as a second chance to fix what she sees as her mistakes right. Namely, to protect those she loves.

* Halfway through [[FanFic/{{ITSMYLIFE}} ITS MY LIFE!]] [[spoiler:the main character has killed almost everyone and accidentally finds a time machine. She points out that it may be her possibility to fix everything, but she first gets too early and then too late and ends up fighting another self-based villain entirely.]]

[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
* The ''{{Lost}}'' fanfic ''Knowing Lost'', rather than having a canon character go back in time, opens with two rabid ''{{Lost}}'' fans from the real world waking up in the wreckage of Oceanic 815 after having a CrypticConversation on the flight home from the finale party. The fic takes itself very seriously, with one character (Ryan) doing everything he can to [[FixFic fix the show's many problems]], while the other (Kevin) tries to keep things in line and stay detached from the events unfolding around him. It appears the "course correction" that prevented [[spoiler: the canon characters from changing the past in season 5]] is in effect and hinders Ryan's attempts change the most painful events in the show.

* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3417335/1/Martian_Manhunter Martian Manhunter]]'' is a ''VeronicaMars''[=/=]''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fusion in which a college-age Veronica is inserted into the Buffyverse as a high school student along with enough of her surroundings to make her past make sense. Only the ''VeronicaMars'' half of it is a Peggy Sue in the strict sense, but the ''Buffy'' half often functions in much the same way, as Veronica's a fan...
* ''[[http://Loopy777.deviantart.com/art/The-Chosen-183958450 The Chosen]]'' is an '''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fanfic that features three twists on the basic Peggy Sue premise. First, it's [[BigBad Ozai]] who gets to go back in time following his defeat at the hands of Avatar Aang. Second, Ozai lives over his entire [[GroundhogDayLoop lifetime from age 15 onward multiple times]], totaling several hundred years ''at the least''. Third, the canon timeline is the last and final loop Ozai ever experiences.
* Meltalviel's ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3814006/1/ For Good]]'' is a story which starts off a year after ''Wicked'' ''ends'' and throws Glinda into the body of herself (G''a''linda) shortly before "Dear Old Shiz." Thrown for a twist in that she immediately decides to change things ''[[TitleDrop for good]]'' and that she's not the only one finding herself back at Shiz.
* The fight against Galaxia doesn't go well, so Usagi uses the Ginzuisho to go back in time... and ends up a bit farther back than expected in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4304858/1/ Third Time's The Charm]]''
** Technically, something similar happened in the manga canon.
*** Actually, the fic does acknowledge this. It's a sort of "back again -- ''again''" setup.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5095852/1/Vive_Vale_Gaude Vive, Vale, Gaude]]'' has Ryou Fujibayashi encounter a distraught Tomoya in the hospital where she works. She discovers that he lost everything: Nagisa and Ushio. She encounters a [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday wish shop]] (which may be a CLAMP reference) and she is then sent back in time, where she attempts to ensure things flow smoothly so that they might be able to avoid that fate.
* Mandi Paugh's ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' FanFic ''[[http://mmhp.net/TheSeries/mmbooks/MMPU.html Powered Down]]'' has a variation of this. Mega Man switches bodies with his counterpart from the PSP remake of the first game, ''MegaManPoweredUp'', eventually attempting to use his knowledge to prevent ''Mega Man 2'' from ever happening. Unlike other Peggy Sue fics, it doesn't affect his own timeline, but he's still using knowledge of his own future to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.
* 4chan's /co/ has a copypasta fic involving King Arthur getting a chance to start over. He asks Merlin to change the female squirrel who pursued him in one sequence of Disney's ''The Sword In The Stone'' into a human to be his friend and companion (and implicitly his wife rather than Guinevere).
** The T-rated story is [[http://arch.413chan.net/arthur_x_hazel-%28n1292184800806%29.jpg here]].
* Halfway through [[FanFic/{{ITSMYLIFE}} ITS MY LIFE!]] [[spoiler:the main character has killed almost everyone and accidentally finds a time machine. She points out that it may be her possibility to fix everything, but she first gets too early and then too late and ends up fighting another self-based villain entirely.]]
* ''FanFic/HogyokuExMachina'' has this premise with a few twists from the usual. It has [[TheHero Ichigo]] ''and'' [[BigBad Aizen]] travel from the final battle back three months to when Aizen betrayed Soul Society. Then within minutes Ichigo yells out that time travel shenanigans are going on, which other characters are quickly able to confirm. Finally, although Ichigo keeps his [[NextTierPowerUp power-ups]] while Aizen loses his, it ends up being a more even playing field than one would expect.
* In the ''StarWars'' fic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3054756/1/Shadows_of_the_Future Shadows of the Future]]'', Obi-Wan is killed by Anakin at [[RevengeOfTheSith Mustafar]]. The Force then [[MentalTimeTravel sends him back]] to when they first met during the [[StarWarsThePhantomMenace Naboo crisis]] 13 years earlier and works to connect with Anakin better this time, becoming more of a cool BigBrotherMentor rather than the cold and aloof one he was before. Well, after he's done spending the first few chapters thinking he's been captured by the enemy or has gone insane.
* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7038096/1/Fate_ReNight Fate ReNight]] is a PeggySue fic for the FateStayNight VisualNovel, where Shirou accidentally activates the remains of the Grail and wishes himself back from the end of the Fate route to the moment he summoned Saber. What's notable about this fic is that it is both the first FateStayNight fic of this type and, while the author is a self-admitted Saber/Shirou fan, he seems to take a sadistic glee in the fact that Fate Shirou lacks a lot of the knowledge revealed in other routes (Archer's identity, Sakura's situation etc), and because of this most all of Shirou's attempted fixes have backfired/are in the process of backfiring. He has recently begun to play with the dream-sharing between Servants and Masters, which likely is going to complicate Shirou's efforts to conceal the time travel thing from Saber.
* AshesOfThePast, a {{Pokemon}} fanfiction, which has [[{{God}} Arceus]] send Ash Ketchum back to the start of his Pokemon journey in order to stop Cryus's second attempt getting the Sinnoh's Creation Trio.
* A variation occurs in a fanfic for ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' entitled [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5239787/1/Chapters Chapters]]. The main character experience the game's own NewGamePlus, [[YouCantFightFate which means he can't change anything]], but he ''can'' mentally slap himself over how he acted...and find post-game content.
* In the ''AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfiction ''Chasing an Empty Dream'', while trying to use magic to get information on the Holy Roman Empire, England accidentally sends himself, Germany, and Italy back to that time period. They witness HRE's fatal injury at the hands of the French Army and, upon seeing how devastated Italy and the past self of Prussia are by the kid's death, Germany decides to fix things by removing the bullet and disinfecting the wound. [[spoiler:It works and Holy Roman Empire lives, only to reveal that the whole thing was a StableTimeLoop - Holy Roman Empire loses his memories from the trauma of the attack, and Prussia decides to rename him "Germany" because his empire doesn't exist anymore.]]
* The ICarly fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8532906/1/iFightCrimeWithVictorious iFight Crime With Victorious]] has Megan Parker and Sikowitz going back in time after the heroes [[spoiler: fail to stop the BigBad from turning Seattle into a nuclear ground zero]] and later become AffablyEvil as a result of the current timeline.
* The SchoolRumble fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5589453/1/School-Rumble-Time-Rumble School Rumble: Time Rumble]] is this with a twist. Harima Kenji gets sent back in time to win Tenma's heart... but everyone's feelings toward everyone else in the series (both romantic and non) travel back in time with him. Needless to say the plot goes rediculously off the tracks very quickly, with barely a casual glance at the StationsOfTheCanon.
* The Wicked fanfic "Almost Like a Prophecy" has Elphaba accidentally sending herself back through time through her magic, which she uses as a second chance to fix what she sees as her mistakes right. Namely, to protect those she loves.
* ''FanFic/ThePrinceOfDeath'' is a ''Manga/DeathNote'' peggy sue where this happens to Light [[spoiler: after dying and becoming a Shinigami]]. [[LikeABadassOutOfHell The Shinigami King, is wary of Kira's presence in his world, and so sends him back to his mortal life, back to the day he would have received the notebook in order to get him out of the way and try to get him killed off for good.]]
* Another one for ''Manga/DeathNote'': Silver Pard's [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4182475/1/Redivivus Redivivus]] sends Light back to his ''infancy'' with Ryuk still at his side, tasked with saving as many lives [[PersonOfMassDestruction as he took the first time around]]. Unfortunately for Light, he killed a ''lot'' of people, and (of course) [[TykeBomb L]] will always be around to make things difficult for him, even when he's just a frustrated EnfantTerrible who [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial ''definitely'' hasn't killed a single person ''this time'']].
* ''FanFic/OnceAgain'' by [=TheVictor=] is a ''OnePiece'' FanFiction. In this one, Akainu kills Luffy's crew, Luffy gives up, Coby eats a devil fruit and sends him back. It's notable in that it's the ''only'' one that has managed to reach Crocodile ''at all''. Every other FanFic has never managed to get to the Alabasta Arc.
* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8568328/25/All-For-You All For You]], a Anime/CodeGeass fanfic, has the premise that CC does this after [[spoiler: Lelouch's death at the end of R2]], and yet despite knowing all of what is going to happen and even actively including herself in the Black Knights as Infinity, everything still happens pretty much ''exactly'' like the Anime. Well, except that the story is far more fluffy and all the [[spoiler: deaths and emotional turmoil]] that made the canon interesting to watch has been removed.
* [[FanFic/TheLifeIsAGameMultiverse Mass Effect: Life is a Game]] has a Male!Paragon!Shepard ''and'' a Female!Renegade!Shepard take a one-way trip from [[Franchise/MassEffect Mass Effect 3's]] endgame into the ''same'' universe. His is MentalTimeTravel, hers isn't. They get married.

[[folder:Canon]]

[[AC:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''MiraiNikki'', this trope soon becomes either the main plot drive or the plot itself, depending on how you interpret it.
* In ''{{Konpeki no Kantai}}'', when Isoroku Yamamoto's plane is shot down in 1943 he wakes up in 1905 in on the cruiser Nisshin just after the Battle of Tsushima and he uses his knowledge to prevent Japan making the mistakes it made.
* In ''ShinMazingerZero'', ''[[Anime/MazingerZ Kouji Kabuto]]'' finds himself being thrown back in time over and again by Minerva-X to prevent the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Unfortunately, he loses nearly all his memories during the time-travel -including he being a time-traveler-, so he has failed several ''thousands'' of times. Minerva seriously wonders how many more times he can stand before his sanity or his body break down.
* Kaworu Nagisa from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' seems to get this in multiple media. The ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' series gave him dialog implying rather strongly that he went from ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha Alpha]]'' to ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsMX MX]]'' and back to ''Alpha 3''. And just to add to it, ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' has him saying that he's looking forward to meeting Shinji "this time".
* ''Manga/ADistantNeighborhood'' is about a middle-aged {{Salaryman}} who finds himself sent back in time into his 14-year-old self.
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', the big reveal about [[spoiler: Homura]] is that her wish turned her into one of these. [[spoiler: [[GroundhogPeggySue Over and over again.]]]]

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]

[[AC:VisualNovels]]

[[AC:Webcomics]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:Web Original]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]

* ''Film/{{Next}}'' is a film where a character effectively has this (or perhaps something more like SaveScumming) due to possessing pre-cognition as a power.

* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' fanfiction ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3670847/1/To_Return_The_Way_I_Was_Before To Return The Way I Was Before]]'' twists this by giving Daniel Jackson amnesia, making him forget everything that has happened since a particular moment on Abydos. Why this moment is never explained.

Compare GroundhogDayLoop, in which the MentalTimeTravel is a repeating short-term loop; for loops which repeat but which are nevertheless on the same scale as a Peggy Sue, see GroundhogPeggySue. The video game equivalents are SaveScumming when a player intentionally loads an earlier save after having gained the knowledge of what is going to happen in the future, and NewGamePlus when the player's character, too, retains stats and equipment from a previous playthrough. Also see AllJustADream, for which this trope is often played as a resolution. For fanfiction, this trope can follow TheStationsOfTheCanon.

* ''Next'' is a film where a character effectively has this (or perhaps something more like SaveScumming) as a power.

** To be fair, though, Harry's foreknowledge creates as many problems as it solves, and arguably becomes all but moot as the story progresses. As for his becoming extremely powerful, there is an explanation for it, and it doesn't seem to come into play very much.

* [[TheLifeIsAGameMultiverse Mass Effect: Life is a Game]] has a Male!Paragon!Shepard ''and'' a Female!Renegade!Shepard take a one-way trip from [[Franchise/MassEffect Mass Effect 3's]] endgame into the ''same'' universe. His is MentalTimeTravel, hers isn't. They get married.

* [[TheLifeIsAGameMultiverse Mass Effect: Life is a Game]] has Male!Paragon!Shepard ''and'' Female!Renegade!Shepard PeggySue from [[Franchise/MassEffect Mass Effect 3's]] endgame into the ''same'' universe. They get married.

* [[TheLifeIsAGameMultiverse Mass Effect: Life is a Game]] has Male!Paragon!Shepard ''and'' Female!Renegade!Shepard PeggySue from [[franchise/MassEffect Mass Effect 3's]] endgame into the ''same'' universe. They get married.

* The ''{{Persona 4}}'' fic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5196521/1/Fortune_no_Hikari Fortune no Hikari]] is an interesting take on this. In it the main character goes back in time to the start of the game after one of the {{Downer Ending}}s. However he's unable to come up with a way to save the SacrificialLamb character at the start without making himself look suspicious and thus fails to save her. He also opts to let a lot of things play their course since he knows it will work out in the end and is afraid trying to change it will make things worse. He does however cause a few minor changes, such as preventing a friend from doing something stupid to get the police off their case, use his knowledge of the future to start of on better terms with his uncle, and subtly give a few hints to cause his two friends to admit their feelings and become a couple almost right away rather than go on with the ShipTease for months on end.

* ''ToADistantTown'' is about a middle-aged {{Salaryman}} who finds himself sent back in time into his 14-year-old self.

* Kaworu Nagisa from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' seems to get this in multiple media. The ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' series gave him dialog implying rather strongly that he went from ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha Alpha]]'' to ''[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsMX MX]]'' and back to ''Alpha 3''. And just to add to it, ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' has him saying that he's looking forward to meeting Shinji "this time".

* The tomb of Ludo Kressh in the second ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' gives Jedi Exile visions of past events, but the shades openly lampshade the concept -- knowing what you do now, would you make the same choices? Can you live with the choices you made in the first place? The Light Side option is usually to say you regret them, which may be a BrokenAesop.
* Pretty much the entire point of GhostTrick. Sissel uses his powers to manipulate objects and turn back time to rescue people before they die, thus changing the present as the characters know it. This all eventually leads up to the final puzzle [[spoiler: where the heroes go back in time ten years to prevent the game's BigBad from dying and ending up in the state that led to his FaceHeelTurn.]]

** Similar to the ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor'' example, ''{{Disgaea}}'' and its NewGamePlus system plays out like this, although with no meta elements: The normal ending, which you ''[[GuideDangIt will]]'' end up getting your first time through, has an incredible DownerEnding -- [[spoiler:Laharl confronts the head of the angels, he kills Flonne, and Laharl murders him in a rage. Then it's revealed it was all a failed BatmanGambit to teach Laharl the power of love, if the Angel leader was still alive he could revive Flonne, and that he was [[YouSuck supposed to forgive the angels.]] Laharl kills himself in grief,]] and you get the "Start a New Game" menu choice. Of course, this time you're high enough level to beat the last boss, yet alone all the hard boss fights on the way, as well as make sure you achieve the canon ending -- [[spoiler: by not accidentally killing ''anyone'' in your party.]] Of course, since this is ''{{Disgaea}}'', later sequels have cameos from ''both'' endings ([[spoiler: In other words, Prinny Laharl and Normal Laharl]]) in them.

* In "Tapestry", an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Picard is about to die due to events that happened in his past, and [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Q]] sends him back in time to relive his Academy days. Picard reacts to the situation which led to his death in a manner that negates his later death. Changing his past however leads to a change in his personality, and Picard [[ItsAWonderfulPlot decides that he liked his life better the way it was before, even if he was about to die. Q, having made his point, brings Picard back to the present and saves his life.]]

* The most notable, though the least acessible, example is the ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]'' {{doujinshi}} ''ReTake,'' which shows much of the later half of the series as Shinji's dream. Of course this doujin, despite the {{hentai}}, is also OriginalFlavour for ''Eva,'' so things go horribly wrong, such as [[spoiler:Asuka ''dying'' in the second volume after being unable to sync with her Eva anymore and it being forced to self destruct]] for example.

* ''[[FanFic/YetAgain Yet again with a little extra help]] by [[www.fanfiction.net/~ThirdFang]] is one where Naruto goes back in time thanks to the intervention of an OC. It's notable in that crosses the [[CrackFic crack]], {{deconstruction}}, and adventure variations, in part due to the antics of the [=OCs=], weary immortals who act nuts and are for the most part intervening only because it'd be entertaining for them.

* FredSaberhagen's ''After the Fact'' has the main character taught to use his ''natural talent'' for this in a plan to secretly rescue AbrahamLincoln from his assassination. It comes in handy that, any time things go wrong, he can reset to a few minutes back and try again. The scene where he accidentally prevents the killing altogether becomes a CMOA for the president, who with a moment's warning singlehandedly clobbers John Wilkes Booth. Unfortunately, that has to be reset, too, since the idea is to rescue Lincoln while still having him ''appear'' to be assassinated.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'' this ''might'' be [[spoiler:how the Kid experiences a New Game Plus+ after having chosen the Restoriation ending.]]