History Main / ResetButton

* At one point in ''Film/MadameWeb2024'', Cassandra gets stabbed by Ezekiel when trying to save the girls, with all of them being killed - and then she snaps back to the present, her precognition having kicked in again. Vowing to "try that again", this time she [[spoiler:opts for a spot of CarFu rather than fight Ezekiel directly, flattening Ezekiel with a taxi before the group escapes]].

** Superman's time travel ends up freeing the Kryptonian villains in Richard Donner's DirectorsCut of ''Film/SupermanII'', forcing Supes to do the "backwards rotation" thing a second time to undo all the crap General Zod started (in fairness, this was supposed to be part II's ending from the get-go; it was moved to part I after Donner got canned).

* In the ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' films:
** When Lois dies in [[Film/SupermanTheMovie the first film]], our hero starts flying around the earth and goes back in time to save her. Because we see Superman flying around the Earth, which reverses its rotation as he flies faster and faster, most viewers interpreted this scene as Superman reversing the rotation of the Earth, which magically reverses time. It was supposed to represent Superman flying so fast that he flies through time and into the past. The Earth spinning backward is a visual representation of the reversal of time, much like the hands of a clock going backwards in other time-traveling scenes. In the comics, Superman sometimes travels through time by exceeding the speed of light. [[WesternAnimation/RobotChicken He even made us forget about the earthquake that killed Lois. What earthquake? Exactly.]]
** Superman's time travel ends up freeing the Kryptonian villains in Richard Donner's [superior] cut of ''Film/SupermanII'', forcing Supes to do the "backwards rotation" thing a second time to undo all the crap General Zod started (in fairness, this was supposed to be part II's ending from the get-go; it was moved to part I after Donner got canned).
* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:
** During the FinalBattle of ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', the Justice League fails to prevent Steppenwolf from activating the [[DoomsdayDevice Unity]] of the Mother Boxes, which causes the League and everything on Earth to be wiped out in a gigantic explosion. Being able to make himself {{intangib|ility}}le, Barry Allen/Flash is spared from the explosion and manages to [[SuperSpeed run beyond the speed of light]] to go back just before the explosion occured and empower Cyborg so he can dismantle the Unity before it is formed.
* The 1936 film ''Film/TheManWhoCouldWorkMiracles'' (based on an Creator/HGWells short story of the same name) employs a giant reset button. The eponymous George Fotheringay impulsively wishes to make the day last longer; his LiteralGenie powers accomplish this by stopping the Earth's rotation. Just the Earth, not anything currently on the planet's surface. Suddenly finding himself spinning amid mountains of wreckage, he decides he is only human after all, wishes he'd never had his godlike powers and returns to the very beginning of the plot, minus the powers or memory he ever had them.

* ''ComicBook/AgeOfUltron'' both plays this trope straight and averts it. The series opens in the aftermath of a GreatOffscreenWar, with most of ComicBook/TheAvengers, ComicBook/XMen, and ComicBook/FantasticFour having been killed by [[Characters/MarvelComicsUltron Ultron]], and ends with Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} and [[Characters/FantasticFourTheFantasticFour Sue Storm]] going back in time and preventing the whole mess from ever occurring. However, we later learn that as a result of the Reset Button being hit, violent "[[RealityBreakingParadox Time Quakes" are appearing throughout the universe]], [[ArtificialIntelligence A.I.s]] are popping up around the globe and [[AIIsACrapshoot going absolutely berserk]], and as the icing on the cake, [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]] has now been teleported to the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel reality.

* Done interestingly to Characters/{{Deadpool|WadeWilson}}: in the final issue of ''Despicable Deadpool'', Deadpool hooks himself up with a shit ton of drugs and goes about inside his mind obliterating every bit of his memory of the past few years, including his buddy-buddy antics with Wolverine, Captain America and his time on ComicBook/UncannyAvengers. He also, earlier, murdered the writer whose last issue was that issue. All for the sake of returning him to his Merc with a Mouth roots.

* ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' had a very limited Reset Button: the Omega 13 could turn time back thirteen seconds. Just ''barely'' enough time to fix a major mistake. Fortunately, it wasn't a plot reset button. The movie was way too good to try that.

** In "Wish Bank", after Janice Hamill wishes that she never found the magic lamp, she is transported back to the rummage sale. She has no memory of picking up the lamp or her visit to the Department of Magical Venues.
** In "The Leprechaun-Artist", the {{Leprechaun}} Shawn [=McGool=] reverses Richie's wish which resulted in him and his friends Buddy and J.P. receiving a car that was "really hot" as in stolen. As a result, the police have no memory of any car theft.
** In "The Library", after Ellie Pendleton admits that she has been altering reality by changing the contents of the books in the library, Gloria returns everything to normal.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

When a series heavily relies on StatusQuoIsGod, you can expect this trope to be used in some shape or form in order to avoid a continuity (which holds especially true for cartoons), sometimes PlayedForLaughs.

* Magic Gods in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' can do an imperfect example of this with their universe-scale RealityWarper powers. It's imperfect because they don't have perfect memories and can only reset the world to what they remember to be, not to what it actually was. While humans can't tell the difference, Magic Gods can. However, by using [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]] (which is unaffected by reality warping) as a reference point, a perfect Reset Button can be achieved. [[spoiler:This happens during the Magic God Othinus arc.]]

[[folder:Films — Animated]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* The Creator/MichaelCrichton film ''Film/{{Sphere}}'' employed a Reset Button. The book's ending is left ambiguous enough that one can infer that the Reset Button attempt only made things worse, though TheFilmOfTheBook lacks this KarmicTwistEnding.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': The two-parte episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS06E04Dreamland Dreamland I]]" and "[[Recap/TheXFilesS06E05DreamlandII Dreamland II]]" has Mulder accidentally switch bodies with a [[TheMenInBlack Man in Black]] working at Area51. Unfortunately, they find out that there is no way to switch back, but luckily at the end of the episode, everything just sort of fixes itself, with time even reversing so that no-one remembers the events that took place. It's a pretty blatant Reset Button, and doesn't even make much sense in the way it works, but the episodes are [[RuleOfFunny such]] [[RuleOfCool fun]] anyway, most fans don't seem to care. Though Mulder still has the waterbed the Man in Black put in his apartment, and is very confused by it; a later episode has him saying "It was a gift. I think."

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' used this in the episode "The Locket", wherein Chrichton and Aeryn are trapped on a time-accelerated planet for decades. The reset button is in the form of Zhaan and Stark using their combined spiritual powers to allow Chrichton to reverse course, taking Moya back in time. This is only prevented from becoming a time loop by the fact that Zhaan and Stark remember the events of the episode, and get the crew to avoid the mist. At the end of the episode the two speculate on whether the loop canceled out the events or if they still happened in an alternate timeline; they're mostly worried they may have accidentally [[RetGone erased]] Aeryn's descendants.

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "White Hole", Lister knocks a planet into the hole to collapse it, causing all time spewed out by it to become null. Kryten explains that the few weeks events leading to this point will not have happened, all the while the decor around them slowly vanishes to a field of stars. Just as the cast themselves are about to vanish, Kryten takes the occasion to tell Rimmer just how much he hates him, ending with a final "Ha!" just as they all get reset back to the start of the episode again.
** It's later hinted that Kryten was wrong and they ''do'' remember the events of the episode.

** Season 5, "Reckoning" - Clark telling Lana he's an alien, proposing to her, Lana's death and Lex seeing Clark using his powers is all undone by the end of the episode thanks to a crystal given to Clark by Jor-El.
** Season 8, "[[Recap/SmallvilleS08E15Infamous Infamous]]" - Clark's use of a Reset Button is referenced by trope name. [[spoiler:Linda Lake writing about his secret, him telling Lois the truth about him and Chloe being ripped to shreds by Doomsday never happened. But in turn, Davis kills Linda.]]

*** In "Unending", the Reset Button is an actual button that's pressed near the end of the episode, resetting time to before they got stuck in a time bubble. This undoes the decades spent by SG-1 on the ship and allows them to escape from the Ori. The only one unaffected is Teal'c (who as an alien, has an expanded lifespan anyway), since he had to retain his memories in order to prevent it from ever occurring.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' did push the reset button once, inexplicably, through time-travel; here, they undid events of the past by simply ''beaming'' future persons into their prior selves before the time-change, which somehow erased the future person's memory. This was a Reset Button since they conveniently claimed that by doing this, "it never happened--" when the two Air Force personnel were clearly on the Enterprise.

*** They finally had to introduce a branch of Starfleet called the "Temporal Investigations", in which they cited Kirk as having committed seventeen separate temporal violations; the biggest file on record.
*** One egregious reset is in the episode "To the Death," where the Defiant returns to the station to find one entire pylon has been blown up by a Jem'Hadar raid. It makes for a shocking visual, but by the next episode the station looks like new. They apparently fixed the damage and kept faithful to the original Cardassian architectural style.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' has pushed the button on occasion, but [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools often doing it very well]]. Episodes like "All Good Things..." and "Yesterday's Enterprise" all end with the paradoxes that caused the problem in the first place being resolved, stopping all events from happening. The difference from the later uses is in that the former case, Picard was able to remember the events that had transpired, and was a different man because of it. In the latter, the entire episode was built around the moral implications of pushing the button, and even when it was pressed, the events would have consequences later in the series.

*** ''Voyager'' did manage to do it once with style, in the episode "The Year of Hell". The Krenim time ship was a weapon that could RetGone whatever it was targeted at. Janeway ultimately stops it by [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming the time ship]] right when it's about to fire, which causes it to RetGone ''itself'' and thus bring back everything (including entire interplanetary civilizations) that it had previously erased from history.

** In "Mystery Spot" the Trickster (Gabriel) killed Dean over and over again, and then brought him back as if nothing had happened following an excruciatingly funny GroundhogDayLoop.
** By Castiel in "My Heart Will Go On" (though it was passed off to everyone except Sam and Dean as AllJustADream) when Fate forced him to retroactively re-sink the Titanic.
** By Michael at the end of "The Song Remains The Same", where the only notable change to reality by the end of the episode was the destruction of Anna, which apparently had little practical effect on anything.
* The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' first SeasonFinale, "End of Days", features a [[spoiler:false climax that has the heroes pressing a reset button that fixes everything that's gone wrong earlier in the episode, but in a subversion of the trope, doing so causes the son of Satan to physically manifest himself as a gigantic monster who kills thousands of people before the team can stop him]].

* One two-parter episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' called 'Dreamland' has Mulder accidentally switch bodies with a Man In Black working at area 51. Unfortunately, they find out there is no way to switch back, but luckily at the end of the episode, everything just sort of fixes itself, with time even reversing so that no-one remembers the events that took place. It's a pretty blatant Reset Button, and doesn't even make much sense in the way it works, but the episodes are [[RuleOfFunny such]] [[RuleOfCool fun]] anyway, most fans don't seem to care. Though Mulder still has the waterbed the Man in Black put in his apartment, and is very confused by it; a later episode has him saying "It was a gift. I think."

** With gameplay the way it is they're not really "Reset Buttons", so much as "what you had is in the Graveyard", and for many strategies, Zombie decks in particular, this works in their favor. The closest thing to an actual reset button is the Banned card Fiber Jar, which resets everything back to the beginning save for RFG zone and Life Points.

* Wiki/SCPFoundation entry [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2000 SCP-2000]]. The article is filled with non-stop TechnoBabble, as it actually goes and justifies how and why the whole thing works, and the security measures to keep it safe, but is otherwise played straight (with slight deconstruction, in that it takes about five decades of time and effort to restart humanity, more or less). The facility can rebuild humanity and its civilization, and it's already been used at least twice. According to the first addendum it's not functioning at the moment but they hope to have it working again by 2020.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The so called "Big Crunch and Big Bounce" theory for how the universe will end--eventually, gravity will pull all the mass in the universe back to a singularity, and then a new Big Bang will occur, creating a new universe. While it's less likely than the "Big Rip" or "Big Freeze" theories, which state that the universe will die either by expanding faster and faster until everything's pulled apart, or reaching maximum entropy, respectively, some people prefer hoping for this one because it's the only one of the three that doesn't end with the universe being dead forever.[[note]]Barring ideas about quantum fluctuations producing a new Big Bang in the third one after a ''[[TimeAbyss really long time]]''. The "Big Crunch" seems unfortunately ruled out according to current understanding.[[/note]] Likewise to the "Big Crunch", the quantum vacuum collapse where the Universe would transition to a more stable state has often been described as a sort of reset button for the Universe, being in fact sort of equivalent to the former as everything would also wind up as a singularity and we do not know what would come next, if anything.
[[/folder]]

* [[WebAnimation/TheChampions2018 "The Champions"]] features an appropriately soccer-themed example: [[spoiler: The Season 5 finale features Galactic VAR disallowing the meteor strike which destroyed the Champions League mansion due to a dust particle being offside.]]

* ''ComicBook/AgeOfUltron'' both plays this trope straight and averts it. The series opens in the aftermath of a GreatOffscreenWar, with most of ComicBook/TheAvengers, ComicBook/XMen, and ComicBook/FantasticFour having been killed by [[Characters/MarvelComicsUltron Ultron]], and ends with ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and [[Characters/FantasticFourTheFantasticFour Sue Storm]] going back in time and preventing the whole mess from ever occurring. However, we later learn that as a result of the Reset Button being hit, violent "[[RealityBreakingParadox Time Quakes" are appearing throughout the universe]], [[ArtificialIntelligence A.I.s]] are popping up around the globe and [[AIIsACrapshoot going absolutely berserk]], and as the icing on the cake, [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]] has now been teleported to the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel reality.

* Done interestingly to ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}: in the final issue of ''Despicable Deadpool'', Deadpool hooks himself up with a shit ton of drugs and goes about inside his mind obliterating every bit of his memory of the past few years, including his buddy-buddy antics with Wolverine, Captain America and his time on ComicBook/UncannyAvengers. He also, earlier, murdered the writer whose last issue was that issue. All for the sake of returning him to his Merc with a Mouth roots.

* The entirety of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' is Morpheus resetting the status quo. However since we never saw what things were like before Morpheus was captured, things are established for the reader as they are reestablished for the characters.

** Continuing the theme of ''Spider-Man plot'' regression, years later, Osborn taunted Peter by claiming to have kidnapped "May". Peter assumed that he meant his daughter (whom Osborn actually did kidnap), but discovered that his frail Aunt May had been a held a prisoner for nearly ten years, and not dead at all.

* ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' had an interesting psychological version. Late in the run of the first series, cold-blooded DeathSeeker ComicBook/{{Deadshot}} hunted down and shot someone who was using his costume, then walked away, effectively killing and abandoning his Deadshot persona. In issues after that you can see him becoming more emotional and engaged, though no less homicidal. But in the final arc of the book, the costume is returned to him; he puts it back on (despite the ''bullet hole in the forehead'') and promptly reverts to his old behavior.

* James Robinson's 2 year+ ''[[ComicBook/NewKrypton World of New Krypton]]'' arc seemed to promise big and lasting changes for ComicBook/{{Superman}}. Kandor rescued from Brainiac and re-enlarged along with 80,000 Kryptonians (including ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s parents). Superman leaving Earth, his wife and regular job to go live on the New Krypton they create. The destruction of the Phantom Zone and the release of all the prisoners it contained. Mon-El being cured of his lead poisoning. The return of Lois' father General Lane as a xenophobic human supremacist who commits some quite horrific war crimes against Superman's people, showing Kal/Clark that Earth isn't perhaps the home he thought it was. Lois being sacked from the Daily Planet. The death of Jimmy Olsen... All snapped back to the previous status quo in the over the course of the four issue ''War of the Supermen'' mini.

* The fourth season of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' ended with "The Philadelphia Story", wherein Will and the Banks family visit Philadelphia, and he aims to confront the bully who was the reason he got sent to California to begin with. The episode ended, somewhat abruptly, with the reveal that Will has decided to stay in Philly and rebuild his life there. The show had actually been cancelled, so this would've functioned as the final episode, but a fan campaign got it UnCanceled. To return to the status quo, the ColdOpen of the fifth season premiere parodied and lampshaded the reset by having [[BreakingTheFourthWall an NBC executive visit Will at his new restaurant job]], reminding him that the title of the show is "The Fresh Prince of ''Bel-Air''", and kidnapping him to send him back to live with the Banks.

* The amusingly LiteralMinded children's [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] sitcom ''[[Series/{{Hounded}}]]'' sees its protagonist [[AsHimself Rufus Hound]] sucked weekly into a [[AlternateUniverse parallel universe]] where he must face off with an incompetent BigBad who is such a CardCarryingVillain he's actually called [[MeaningfulName Dr Muhahahaha]], whose [[EvilPlan preposterous scheme of the week]] to [[TakeOverTheWorld take over the Earth]] is invariably foiled by the hero at the end of each episode - in expectation of which Dr Mu ''has installed a literal big red Reset Button'' he can press at this point, which rewinds the whole episode's plot [[GroundhogDayLoop back to the start of the day]] ready for him to have another crack next time...

* ''WebAnimation/SonicForHire'': At the end of Season 6, Franchise/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}} and the gang's use of time travel causes reality to break apart. With no way to stop it, Sonic ultimately decides to press the reset button on his UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, effectively erasing the entire universe and leaving the gang as pixels.

Not to be confused with SnapBack, which is when events are reverted but no explanation is given.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' essentially does this for its second season. Lelouch may know a little more about the details surrounding his mother's death, but those details [[spoiler:are essentially unimportant to Lelouch meeting his mother and resolving the series]]. The reset is also part of a GambitRoulette played by Charles Britannia to prevent Lelouch from meddling in his plans without killing him.
* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'', the entire Digital World was rebooted because it was on the verge of being destroyed by [[spoiler:Meicoomon's virus. All digimon, even ones that who died in the real world, were brought back as their fresh level form. All digimon were left with no memories of anything before the reboot. Even Kari and TK's D3 digivices were reduced to their original forms]].
* In the ''Franchise/DragonBall'' series, the Dragon Balls are frequently used as a reset button for resurrecting dead characters, recreating destroyed planets, etc. Entire series are based on the concept of collecting all the Dragon Balls to undo the damage done in the ''previous'' arc. Unlike most Reset Buttons, this one actually has limits, especially early on when a specific wish can only be made once. The more powerful Namekian Dragon Balls didn't have this limit, though, and it was removed from the Earth Dragon Balls after [[spoiler:Dende replaced Kami]]. There's also a strict time limit, at least when it comes to resurrecting the dead: the wish has to be made within a year of the person's death. Which could have added complications given that the Dragon Balls spread across the world and become inert for a year after a wish is granted, and are completely untraceable until they reactivate.
** It turns out [[spoiler:Whis]] has this as a power. As opposed to other versions of time travel in this universe which simply create an alternate timeline (like Future Trunks'), they can simply rewind time for up to three minutes and undo whatever just happened. [[spoiler:Since the first instance was Freiza blowing up the earth and killing almost everyone else simply because they took a little too long to kill him, this was a very good thing.]]
** This also applies out-of-universe too; in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' this was an EnforcedTrope due to the storylines [[OvertookTheManga not being in the manga]] - the Journey to Namek Saga, Garlic Jr. Saga and Otherworld Tournament Saga ''had'' to reset the storyline in the end, and StatusQuoIsGod was in play, these story arcs were never given a ContinuityNod in later episodes of the show.
* The end of the ''VisualNovel/ElevenEyes'' anime. [[spoiler:Everyone except the three main characters is resurrected and loses their memories of everything bad that happened, including 'their own deaths'.]]
* In ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'', humanity gets reset, with Shinji and Asuka as Adam and Eve. [[GainaxEnding Maybe...]]
** ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' more or less confirms this to some extent with [[spoiler:the seas being red, Lilith's corpse being on the moon and Kaworu's ominous "The third child again huh?" and "This time, I'll show you true happiness."]]
** The manga ending also may support that theory (at least in that continuity), showing [[spoiler:Asuka and Shinji meeting for the first time in a restored world where Second Impact never occurred]].
* In ''Anime/ExcelSaga'', the Reset Button is actually a ''character:'' the Great Will of the Macrocosm, a floating vortex with arms. Her major purpose is to continually resurrect cast members as needed, which is quite often. Things get complicated when she not only fails to bring back Pedro, but starts sleeping with him. [[spoiler:It turns out she and his wife are one and the same... somehow.]] The Reset Button gets pressed at ''least'' four times [[FirstEpisodeResurrection in the first episode alone...]]
* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
** Ultear's goal for most of her life was to find a magical Reset Button that could give her back her lost childhood. At one point she thought she found it when she discovered the DangerousForbiddenTechnique "Last Ages". Master Hades then told her ''why'' it was considered dangerous and forbidden: the spell can reverse time, but it also takes away the caster's time in the process [[spoiler:via RapidAging]]. She eventually decides to cast it anyway [[spoiler:to prevent the Dragons' invasion. Unfortunately, she is only able to turn back time by one minute. Fortunately, that one minute is enough to save many lives, including Gray's]].
** This is also [[spoiler:Zeref's]] master plan in the final arc of the series. [[spoiler:With the possibility of dying seemingly beyond his grasp after Natsu failed to kill him, Zeref decides he's going to use [[MacGuffin Fairy Heart]] to power one of these, allowing him to go all the way back to ''his'' childhood, with all of his current memories intact, to stop Natsu from dying, and by extension, himself from ever getting the [[CompleteImmortality Curse of]] [[InstantDeathRadius Contradictions]] in the first place.]] This would change the present so radically that the entire universe as the rest of the cast knows it would be RetGone, making his threat to [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac wipe out humanity]]]] MetaphoricallyTrue.
* The ending of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' downplayed this trope. Only one thing was reset: [[spoiler:Roy regaining his eyesight]] and even that was justified by [[spoiler:the leftover Philosopher's Stone]]. Permanent changes include
** [[spoiler:The death of King Bradley and Gruman installed in his place]]
** [[spoiler:Ed losing his alchemy]]
** [[spoiler:Ed getting his arm back and Al his body]]
* Miaka of ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' uses her last wish to Suzaku so that the two worlds would return to normal. [[spoiler:They don't.]]
* In ''Manga/FutureDiary'', Yukiteru Amano's sole reason to winning the game and [[GodhoodSeeker becoming God]] is so he can wield the Reset Button and bring all his friends back to life. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding It won't work.]]]]
* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' starts most arcs as if the previous ones had never happened; this at first seems to be NegativeContinuity but the first season's final arc implies something more is going on when Keiichi freaks out ([[spoiler:confessing to his very-much-alive friend that he can remember killing her]]) after suddenly remembering traumatic details from the very first arc. In the second season, we're introduced to the character that keeps pressing the Reset Button.
* In the original, 1969 ''Manga/HimitsuNoAkkoChan'' series, after meeting [[LongLostUncleAesop a new deaf kid]], the heroine Akko-chan uses her [[LiteralGenie magic mirror]] [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor to wish herself]] [[CompressedVice deaf-mute]] and achieve a better understanding of his plight. However, when believing to have already gotten her Aesop Akko-chan tries to wish her hearing back, she finds out that, due to having wished herself ''deaf and mute'', she no longer possesses the ability to communicate verbally, and the mirror refuses her wish. The Reset Button hits itself, restoring the heroine at her original state, only after the protagonist is scared into her right Aesop.
* Since the four ''Manga/InuYasha'' movies are [[NonSerialMovie not canon]], each includes a short scene after the credits that undoes anything that happened during the movie that might have been expected to affect the series. For example, in ''[[Anime/InuYashaTheMovieTheCastleBeyondTheLookingGlass The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass]],'' the final scene [[spoiler:returns Inuyasha and Kagome to their previous state of {{UST}} despite their [[RelationshipResetButton earlier]] [[FakeFirstKiss kiss]]]] and the end scene of ''[[Anime/InuYashaTheMovieSwordsOfAnHonorableRuler Swords of an Honorable Ruler]]'' [[spoiler:has Kagome put the [[RestrainingBolt necklace of control]] (which was previously broken) back around Inuyasha's neck]].
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** In ''Manga/DiamondIsUnbreakable'', once [[spoiler:[[BigBad Yoshikage Kira]] is hit with the Arrow (again), Killer Queen gains a third bomb, Bites the Dust. With it, anyone who discovers Kira's identity via the bomb's carrier is blown up and time rewinds to an hour beforehand. It's not a total reset, however; Bites the Dust's carrier still remembers what happened, and so long as it's still in effect, those previously killed will still die at the same time they did in a previous loop]].
** Although [[BigBad Enrico Pucci]] of ''Manga/StoneOcean'' [[spoiler:manages to cause a universal reset in the climax]], it's undone when [[spoiler:Emporio kills him before the time of the new universe reaches that of Made in Heaven's activation]]. Though things are mostly back to normal on a cosmic scale, [[spoiler:all the previously dead heroes come back as people with different names and histories, and the events of the part effectively never occurred. As the [[Manga/SteelBallRun following]] [[Manga/{{JoJolion}} Parts]] take place in an AlternateUniverse completely separate from the events of the first 6 Parts, this can also be seen as a reset button for the series as a whole]].
* In the ''Manga/LoveHina'' anime, any time it seems there might be progression in the relationship between two characters (most usually Keitaro and Naru), an event will occur (typically Keitaro "accidentally" touching Naru's breasts with a consequent MegatonPunch making Keitaro ATwinkleInTheSky) to ensure that StatusQuoIsGod. Conversely, in the manga, Keitaro and Naru's relationship does progress (though occasionally in a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of way), and the DistantFinale shows their wedding day.
** The Hinata Inn is more or less destroyed on several occasions, but always comes back.
* The end of ''Manga/{{Magikano}}''. [[spoiler:It was revealed that time should be reversed every year so the Demon King (Haruo) would not awaken but to put some spice in the story, this time it was too late but was resolved anyway.]]
* ''Manga/MyBrideIsAMermaid''. Nagasumi's house and school get destroyed on a regular basis, but always come back. {{Handwave}}d with the idea that Lunar's father owns a construction company.
* The Reset Button ending of ''Anime/MyHime'', in which Miyu shatters the pillars, restoring all the Himes' most important people to life (as well as a few of the Himes themselves), and even heals [[EyeScream Nao's eye]].
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Pain's last act is to resurrect everyone he killed during the attack on the Hidden Leaf Village, but it's implied that he can only do so within a short period of time after killing them. [[spoiler:It also kills him from the strain, so along with there only being a couple people on the planet who can do that, it isn't exactly common.]]
** After he undergoes a HeelFaceTurn, Obito attempts to do the same trick as Pain, using the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to resurrect everyone killed during the Fourth Ninja World War. This will no doubt kill him since not only are there many more casualties than the Invasion of Konoha, but Obito is not an [[LongLived Uzumaki]]. [[spoiler:However, the technique is hijacked by Madara at the last minute, who uses it to resurrect himself.]]
* The AnimatedMusicVideo ''WebAnimation/OnYourMark'' has one, around 04:34, when two of the main characters are about to die.
* In the ''Ruby/Sapphire'' arc of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', [[spoiler:Norman, Steven, and Courtney]] die in the battle, so Ruby whips out a [[spoiler:Celebi]] who brings them back.
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Madoka uses her wish to [[spoiler:reboot the universe into a slightly less horrible place by making it so witches cannot exist; all it cost her in return [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence was being forgotten by everyone except Homura]]]]. A lesser example occurs [[spoiler:every time Homura resets time following a failed attempt to save Madoka from dying or becoming a witch]].
* In ''Manga/SailorMoon'', the title character twice serves as the embodiment of a reset button, at the end of the first and fifth seasons. Not only does she bring the entire main cast BackFromTheDead in both cases, but in the first season, she also [[LaserGuidedAmnesia erases their memories]] (as well as her own) of being superheroes and saving the world, because she [[IJustWantToBeNormal just wants to be normal]]. She is [[FakeMemories given her memories back]] in the very next episode, when a new enemy arrives. She also acted as a reset button in the manga at the end of the Infinity Arc when she brought the entire planet back after Sailor Saturn killed everyone on it. Furthermore, she also acts as a universe-wide reset button in the last chapter of the manga.
* Portions of the series ''Manga/SaitamaChainsawShoujo'' were rendered moot when [[spoiler:it was revealed that the classmates Fumio sliced and diced were actually {{doppelganger}}s. The real students were locked away in another dimension]].
* In ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'', this is how [[spoiler:the nice, child-like incarnation of Lain]] deals with rumors at school. Twice. It's unclear whether the events are erased, memories are erased, or whether [[spoiler:the two are equivalent]]. See also [[spoiler:ResetButtonEnding]].
* ''Manga/SgtFrog'': Kululu's back-up memory drive in Episode 51.
* Lampshaded in ''Manga/SketDance''. In chapter 159, their wacky antics burns their club room down, and in the following chapter, when trying to explain themselves, Bossun and Himeko insists that it's a [[GagSeries "gag manga"]] and that the room will surely return to normal in a week's time.
* This trope is combined with SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong in ''Anime/TenchiMuyo''. At the end of the third OVA series, [[spoiler:Washu, Tokimi and Tsunami come to realize that Tenchi is the avatar of their universe's God. Thus they decide to reboot the universe so that Tenchi comes into his powers more naturally and the damage caused by Tokimi's attempt to force an avatar never happens. However, since doing so means that Noike would never come to meet Tenchi, a future version of her slips in to make sure the message that kickstarted the craziness of the third OVA series is sent.]]
* In ''Manga/TheWallflower'' manga, ''some'' progress has been made with Sunako and her unladylike behavior (she hardly ever gets nosebleeds anymore, for a start), but any development that would actually change the manga dynamic for good is reset. The most infuriating example of this is a late chapter in which Sunako finally realizes that she's beautiful and Kyohei finally seems to be having a LoveEpiphany in regards to Sunako, only for all of that progress to be undone in the end thanks to a couple of thoughtless words from Kyohei.
* In ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', part of the "Heart of Jupiter" saga has a minor one. After being [[spoiler:sent to the past via MentalTimeTravel]], Keima must prevent a cute but emotionless young girl from committing suicide, and befriend her. Should the girl get overtaken by despair, she [[FountainOfYouth regresses into a baby]] and the Reset Button is pushed, sending Keima back to the start of the mission.
* The end of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'''s third season. [[spoiler:Understandable, though, considering they killed off just about the ''entire cast.'' Was anyone expecting them to stay dead?]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''Blog/AlwaysHavingJuice'', Shadow’s TimeTravel ability amounts to this; if he ever messes up, he strikes a pose and goes back in time to a point where he can start over.
** [[DeconstructedTrope It's not always effective though.]] Someone asked why he didn't use this to save Maria. [[http://alwayshavingjuice.tumblr.com/post/124640201968 It turns out he did ''try to,'']] [[GoneHorriblyWrong but the whole thing went horribly awry and it truamtized him to the point he not only hasn't tried again since, he refuses to elaborate on what actually happened (though the comic implies he might have gotten shot and nearly died...)]]
* Time Vortexes in ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' usually act as these.
* In ''Fanfic/AvengerOfSteel'', the [[spoiler:only way for the Ancient One to undo the ritual that Lorelei used to take control of Superman is to use the Time Stone to reverse time for Superman and Lorelei to a point before the ritual was performed]].
* In the novelized adaptation titled''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'', the [[spoiler: Malice Orb that Astor uses is eventually purged of its darkness and becomes the Sheikah Orb, which subsequently chooses Paya as its next user. It grants her extensive powers, including the power to manipulate the flow of time in a given area. She uses it as this trope, restoring destroyed structures to their pre-Calamity appearance, which she demonstrates with the Great Plateau's Temple of Time.]]
* ''Fanfic/{{Couturiere}}'' mocks the notion of Ladybug's Miraculous Cure functioning this way, and [[PlayedForDrama milks it for drama]]. The akumatized Marinette shows her captives a pair of fake Ladybug earrings, informing them that their heroine will ''not'' be coming to save them, and that all the damage she inflicts upon them will not be wiped away by a wave of magical ladybugs. That it will, in fact, be permanent. [[spoiler:After she's freed, Marinette retrieves the real earrings, transforms, and uses Miraculous Cure anyway. While this erases the ''physical'' consequences, the emotional and psychological impact remain.]]
* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': In chapter 11 of the third story, ''Diplomacy Through Schooling'', [[spoiler:Twilight (thanks to having access to all magics) is able to tap Time's powers and rewind time for the Golden Oaks Library and her school, restoring them and all inanimate objects inside to how they were before Tirek destroyed them.]]
* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' fanfic ''Fanfic/GuiltUndone'' sees Samantha Carter using the 'reset button' idea; after spending the previous couple of chapters going through a TraumaCongaLine of only realising that she was in love with Daniel Jackson ''after'' turning him down for a date and watching him get killed because he was caught off-guard by the planet's natives on their next mission, Sam is visited by her future self, who shows her a complex time machine that can either send a person back physically or merge them with their own past selves to let them literally 're-do' preceding events. With the knowledge that Daniel's continued survival will allow the SGC to discover an Ancient repository before Anubis, Sam goes back two months, and [[spoiler:is able to start a relationship with Daniel and save his life]].
* ''Fanfic/LeaveForMendeleiev'':
** Adrien/Chat Noir regards Ladybug's [[WorldHealingWave Miraculous Cure]] as one, since it [[HeroInsurance magically restores any damage done by the akuma]]. He uses this to justify slacking off during fights, as he considers [[EntitledToHaveYou flirting with his partner]] and [[SecretChaser figuring out her]] SecretIdentity [[SkewedPriorities far more important than protecting Paris]]. After all, ''she's'' [[TheReliableOne responsible enough for both of them]], right?
** After Mylene is akumatized into Horrificator, Nino defends his desire to exploit the situation by making her monstrous form part of his movie this way. Adrien [[PoisonousFriend backs him up]], much to Marinette's horror. The idea that civilians see the Cure as a magical safety net that erases any long-term consequences is so unsettling that she considers asking Tikki if there's some way to ''limit'' the Cure's effects, in hopes of curbing that sort of mentality.
* ''Fanfic/LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami'' features a very literal version in the form of a Reset Note, which Dark finds and uses to erase the villain Kaos and his entire plot arc from existence, [[WordOfGod after the author realized he'd written the story into a corner]].
* Near the end of ''Fanfic/MarieDSuesseAndTheMysteryNewPirateAge'', a fic that takes place 20 years after [[spoiler:Luffy's execution and the deaths of the Straw Hat and Heart Pirates, among many others]], it is revealed that [[spoiler:Law/The Disinfector's]] plan is to return the world to normal. [[spoiler:To do so, he needs the power of Madelyn's wish-granting ability, he needs Mar to use her logic powers to twist the rules enough to make this wish possible, and he needs Mar's father, who has not made a wish, to make the wish. It succeeds, but it results in Mar, who was conceived after Madelyn went to the real world to escape the consequences of her actions, being [[RetGone removed from existence]].]]
* ''[[WebVideo/ImAMarvelAndImADC Marvel/DC After Hours]]'' has some fun with it.
-->'''Spider-Man:''' Wait. So, that's all Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} had to do?\\
'''Batman:''' What do you mean?\\
'''Spider-Man:''' I mean, he just pressed the reset button, basically. I was kinda hoping for something, I don't know, a bit more... epic.\\
'''Batman:''' It's a perfectly plausible resolution.\\
'''Spider-Man:''' Yeah, but is it satisfying?\\
'''Batman:''' [[MagicAIsMagicA It works within the boundaries of what was established]].\\
'''Spider-Man:''' Yeah, but it takes all the excitement out of it if all you have to do is [[ResetButtonEnding make it so that it never happened]].\\
'''Batman:''' No, that's only if [[AllJustADream it turns out to just be a dream]] or something.\\
'''Spider-Man:''' But you can't have drama without...
* An unusual example in ''Fanfic/{{Pokeumans}}'' in that it's part of the beginning of the story, not the end. Here, the Legendary Pokemon used their power to delete all knowledge of their existence and return humanity to the way it was without them before escaping to an alternate dimension.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} when the AuthorAvatar of ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6400880/1/The_Random_Crack_of_Haruhi_Suzumiya The Random Crack of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' attempts to reverse time, stating: "Now to sort out this universe for the next poor sod who comes to write here. I unleash the power of... THE BACKSPACE!" Unfortunately, another character saved a copy and posted it on the Fanfic website.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Sluagh}}'', [[spoiler:at the Battle of Druim Cett, every good wizard character that died comes back to life due to the intervention of the Celtic Gods (considering Rowling's canonical epilogue is set in 2017 and ''Sluagh'' is set in 2003, there is really not much of a choice for the author)]].
* A literal one in ''Fanfic/TalesOfAResetMind'', which [[spoiler:resets the entire Mind World, effectively undoing most of the damage the protagonist sustained over his life]].
* ''Fanfic/GazDreamsOfGenie'': A FreudianSlip results in Gaz using her first wish to [[RetGone make it so Dib was never born]], which creates [[VillainWorld a reality where Zim conquered Earth]]. After suffering a day as a human slave, Gaz is quick to use her second wish to undo the first, bringing Dib back into existence and restoring reality.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Most game consoles have soft reset buttons in the same vicinity as the power button, to reset the system's RAM and return to the game's title screen without powering down. Very useful for SaveScumming.
* The whole mechanic of NewGamePlus: everything in the story goes back to however it was in the beginning, except for whatever features (usually experience levels and items) you're allowed to keep.
* Mengsk's Dominion empire in ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' was hit with a Reset Button at the start of ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty''. You could skip from the original ''Starcraft'' to ''Wings of Liberty'' and not realize that there was an expansion game (''Brood War'') in-between where the Dominion got the living crap beaten out of them.
* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsGame'' game had the ultimate reset button when [[spoiler:they asked God to restore Springfield following an alien invasion]].
* ''Videogame/{{Xenosaga}}'' made this a central plot point in the third game Thus Spoke Zarathustra and ultimate goal of the BigBad. [[spoiler:Wilhelm intended to use an artifact to reset time so the Universe wouldn't be destroyed by spatial expansion.]]
* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' has the both the Sands themselves and the Dagger of Time, a (very) short-time reset button that allowed a player to undo huge mistakes like falling into a death trap, or taking a major beating in a fight. As well, the events of the entire game end up being reset by the end, and in the end movie the Prince uses the Dagger one last time to undo kissing the woman he fell in love with during the erased timeline, who rejects him for doing so while having "just" met her. In a unique variation, the Reset Button mechanism itself sets off the events of the second game, as the PowersThatBe are out to punish the Prince for using it.
* The time manipulations of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin'' (erasing the existence of the Sands of Time) enable ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'' to happen, as they result in the Vizier never being killed by the Prince during the first one. At the end of ''The Two Thrones'' [[spoiler:when the Prince finds his dead father and his dark side taunts him to find some way to rewind time again, he vows to take responsibility for his actions and refuses to hit the button again.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' had a Time spell called Return or Reset (depending on which version) that you could use during combat to rewind to the beginning of the fight. This spell was very favorable to the player-- it would also reset the battle condition. So, for example, if the battle began as an Ambush attack, the player could use this spell and the battle condition would most likely to be changed to a normal battle or even a preemptive attack. Also, it cost only 1 MP. It also lets you attempt to steal items again, especially useful if you need a Rare Item from one of the rarer encounters.
%%* Several ''VideoGame/WildARMs'' games.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' rewinds time for battles via an item called Earlier Times. This resets the battle back to the start, including its conditions such as the party's status and items held at that time.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'' has Retry Clocks, which restart the battle if you get KO'd.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' has the Miracle/Silver Badge combo, which reverts your status to the prior turn. Returns used items, cancels effects, resets countdowns, etc.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** A reset happens in the bad ending for ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD''. Eggman presumably uses the Time Stones to CTRL-Z everything you did in the game.
%% ** Used at the very end of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', though it's suggested that [[spoiler:Sonic and Elise still remember each other vaguely]].
%% ** Crisis City exists in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' where it's ''not supposed to'', though that could just be the Time Eater messing with the timelines.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', this is one of the central gameplay elements. Link only has three days to save Termina; as soon as the third night ends, [[ColonyDrop the moon will crash into the planet and cause the end of the world]]. But every time Link plays the Song of Time, he returns to the dawn of the first day, taking his key items with him, allowing him to do more each time. Now, if you're wanting to blitz the game in the very first cycle after you reclaim the Ocarina, it ''is'' possible to do it all[[note]]except several of the minigames[[/note]], but you have to '''really''' know what you're doing: [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/n64/197770-the-legend-of-zelda-majoras-mask/faqs/31495 speed run guide]].
* Parodied in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'''s [[Radio/GTARadio in-game radio]] chat show channel Chatterbox, in which, while discussing video games, ironically, the show's host Lazlow and a caller get to the concept of reset buttons. The caller says "Life does not have a Reset Button" to which Lazlow responds that the show does and proceeds to prove his point by pressing said button. Since the game disc can only hold so much, the radio show must keep repeating the same things. [[HandWave The Reset Button on the show just explains that away easy]].
* ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'' gives Maxim the Reset spell, which lets him reset a puzzle room to prevent [[{{Unwinnable}} you from getting stuck if you screw up a difficult puzzle.]]
* The second ''[[VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica Ar tonelico]]'' has a Song Magic called the Reset Button. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It resets the battle.]] [[UselessUsefulSpell Supposedly, you use it to reset bad things that might happen in battle, but there's really no point...]] And then later on, weird things happen to the Reset Button in its so-called "upgrades".
* Most gaming consoles have either a reset button or a combination of buttons (ex: A + B + Select + Start) which would reload the game from the menu screen. This was essentially inputted so as to not hurt the console, as turning it on/off quickly could fry some important stuff. There's even one on the computer which you are using right now!
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' ends with [[spoiler:Rosalina resetting ''reality itself'' after the destruction of Bowser's galaxy ends up ripping apart the universe, effectively making the sequel a semi-ContinuityReboot]].
%%* [[spoiler:The good endings]] of ''VideoGame/KnightsInTheNightmare''.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'', it turns out [[spoiler:Spyro is the Reset Button for the planet. If the Destroyer is successful in triggering TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, Spyro (and likely any Purple Dragon for that matter) can use their power to stop it and restore the world to normal]].
* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' resets ''the entire Franchise/MortalKombat series'', starting at the very beginning of the first ever Mortal Kombat tournament. But since Raiden now has knowledge of the future (and the events of the future games), some things are going to change.
* The retries in the ''VideoGame/BlinxTheTimeSweeper'' series act as this, reversing time to before you made the fatal mistake so you can try again.
* Every time you {{ascend|ToAHigherPlaneOfExistence}} in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', things rapidly go back to the way things were at the beginning of the game, [[NewGamePlus requiring you to go back and do it all over.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'', [[spoiler:this is [[InvokedTrope invoked]] but deconstructed in the Restoration ending. The Bastion ''completely'' resets the world, so the characters are replaced with their past selves, and there is nothing to stop events from [[GroundhogDayLoop repeating themselves]]]].
* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'':
** In the first two games, [[spoiler:the whole setting is a GroundhogDayLoop, with various possibilities playing out in a time loop, and then resetting itself. Several characters often die in MultipleEndings and other instances, but never canonically. In the {{Canon}} ending of ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'', however, the Reset Button and the GroundhogDayLoop are removed by [[BigBad Terumi]], so if anyone dies now, [[KilledOffForReal they die for good]]]]. In actuality [[spoiler:[[BigBad Terumi]]]] is merely the catalyst for this whereas the real removal is done by [[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheMan Imperator Librarius]], who also happens to be Ragna and Jin's possessed LongLostSibling Saya]].
** ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction'' reveals that across the whole series, [[spoiler: [[DeusEstMachina Master Unit Amaterasu]] and its inhabitant The Origin have been constantly resetting the universe to try and usher it towards a version of events where her 'big brother', who she has identified as being Ragna the Bloodedge, can save her from her tortuous situation. Events that lead too greatly from that are undone one way or the other; give the interference of the Imperator and Termui, this has happened many times]].
* In the Neko Entertainment game ''Puddle'', [[spoiler:spilling radioactive liquid sodium into a nuclear singularity will cause a NegativeSpaceWedgie that completely undoes the events of the game, returning the puddle to being coffee. Just in time for the guy who poured it in the first place [[BrickJoke to return and drink it]]]].
* Throughout much of ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', you're hitting little Reset Buttons here and there to avert people's fates through your powers of time manipulation. All this seems to lead to the conclusion that the game will end with everyone being saved but the universe as a whole being left intact. [[spoiler:Wrong! The final chapter suddenly changes things drastically when you're presented with the chance to go back and undo the PlotTriggeringDeath itself, completely rewriting reality and ending a ten-year ordeal once and for all.]]
* In the SurvivalHorror [[ExploitationFilm Exploitation Game]] ''Demonophobia'', [[spoiler:[[MeaningfulName Ritz]] is a sentient reset button who keeps resurrecting Sakuri should she die. Here's a twist, Sakuri is completely conscious even after [[AndIMustScream being grinded into mincemeat]] over and over again, and ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou you are the one who forced Ritz to resurrect Sakuri by simply pressing the R button]]'']].
* The implications behind the Reset Button's usage and its deconstruction is the main theme of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', which are then explored in detail.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'': [[spoiler:The Freedom ending has the Demi-fiend reject all of the [[EndOfTheWorldSpecial Reasons]], then beat the crap out of God's avatar so hard that he's forced to restore the world to how it was before]].
* In ''VideoGame/Persona2 Innocent Sin'', party member Maya Amano is killed near the end of the story fulfilling an ingame prophecy and causing the world to be destroyed. In order to save the world and Maya, the remaining party members choose to wipe away the summer night they all first met from existence in order to ensure that Maya survives and that the prophecy doesn't come true. This leads to their universe being reset, causing the events of the game to have never happened and creates the universe in which all following Persona games take place.
* In recent issues of ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'', it's revealed that there's a universal reset button just waiting to be used - and in fact, it's already been used four times. [[spoiler:Turns out the [[CosmicKeystone Gaia Engines]] aren't just used for keeping the [[EldritchAbomination Dreamers]] [[SealedEvilInACan asleep]] and purging the [[TheVirus Filth]]: in the event that one of their prisoners happens to wake up and destroy the world, the Gaia Engines are able to harness the Dreamers' [[RealityWarper reality-warping powers]] and recreate the world prior to the apocalypse. Unfortunately, this function isn't precise enough to recreate the exact time period, technology or people, so it always ends with the entire universe being reset to factory settings, with only a few exceptionally powerful individuals and artifacts from the previous era being able to live on in the new world; even the laws of physics are warped as a result, hence why nobody's been able to exactly replicate the LostTechnology of the 3rd Age. Worse still, after being used so many times, the Gaia Engines are starting to break down, and they might not be capable of resetting the world. In other words, if a Dreamer breaks out again, it's game over for the entire universe.]]
* ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'', the reset option is one of the endings for Daichi's path. The party chooses to defeat [[BigBad Polaris]] and have her turn back the world to how it was before the Septentriones arrived.
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, Alduin, the [[DragonsAreDemonic draconic]] BeastOfTheApocalypse, acts as one of these for the universe. It is his divinely mandated duty to "[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt eat the world]]" at the end of every "kalpa" (cycle of time) so that it can be remade anew. Unfortunately, in the current kalpa, he decides to shirk his duty and try to TakeOverTheWorld instead, leading to the events of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' where he serves as the BigBad.
* ''VideoGame/DespicableBear'': The trash can in the lower right corner serves as one, just click it twice.
* ''VideoGame/RandalsMonday'': [[spoiler:Randal has to rewrite the entire timeline to stop the loop and save Matt]].
* In the Monster Hunt mode of ''VideoGame/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft'', this is Toki's hero power. Once per turn, you can use the power to start the turn over from the beginning. Useful for undoing misplays and ''especially'' for avoiding unwanted effects from randomness-based cards.
* ''VideoGame/The3rdBirthday'' has a partial example. On one hand, [[spoiler:Aya's actions in the ending make it so that the Twisted and High Ones never existed in the first place, undoing the death and destruction they caused]]. On the other hand, [[spoiler:this Reset Button came at the cost of a HeroicSacrifice on Aya's part, which only Eve remembers]].
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the Halls of Origination house the Forge of Origination, a Titan device intended to reset Azeroth to the state the Titans intended for it to have. [[spoiler: At the end of the Ny'alotha raid in ''Battle for Azeroth'', the Forge is used to finally annihilate N'Zoth, the last of the [[EldritchAbomination Old Gods]]. The whole point of the raid up until that point is to place special anchor points throughout Ny'alotha to make it possible to annihilate N'Zoth without affecting the rest of Azeroth.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Erasing someone's recent memory to prevent them from "knowing too much" is a common device. This has been used in ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' and ''Film/DudeWheresMyCar'', among others. See TheMenInBlack[=/=]MemoryWipingCrew.
* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' (naturally). At the end of the season long arc, in which the spy agency ISIS was shut down and turned into a drug cartel, they return to working as spies, under the CIA. There are some major changes however, such as the team taking orders from Slater and [[spoiler:Lana having a child]]. The playing with comes when Cheryl and Pam are put in charge of refurbishing their old office...and refurbish it so it looks exactly like their old office, right down to the locations of stains on the rug. The first episode of the season lampshades the hell out of it, with Mallory furious at the office being reset (much to Cheryl's delight).
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' has a villain, Francis Grey, who learned to turn back time while serving an extremely disproportionate prison sentence. Batman is of course pretty helpless against a guy who can just rewind to the beginning of every fight, and by the end of the episode Francis has [[TheBadGuyWins killed the entire Bat family and most of Gotham]]. Fortunately, after this he resets things to before he commits the crime that got him sent to prison in the first place and reforms.
* Done in almost every single episode of the ''Challenge of the WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}''. The LegionOfDoom would trap some or all of the Superfriends in some sort of deathtrap or Rube Goldberg scheme, but the heroes would escape and catch the villains, [[VillainExitStageLeft who would then invariably escape]].
** For an example of a Reset Button inside of a Reset Button, there is the episode "Rest in Peace Superfriends" where the Legion of Doom actually succeeds in murdering all of the Superfriends, only for them to reveal [[ActuallyADoombot that they actually killed robot clones]] of the Superfriends.
** In the final episode of the Season the Legion of Doom when trying to destroy the Superfriends with a solar flare accidentally destroy the world, including themselves. However {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s visiting Earth turn back time and stop the solar flare.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' has a Reset Button in the form of the supercomputer's Return to the Past (RTTP) program, which erases the past twenty-four hours (or thereabouts) with only the protagonists remembering it. They use at the end of every episode in the first season after [[BigBad XANA's]] current scheme has been defeated to erase all evidence that it ever happened. However, they start using it less frequently starting in Season 2, when they realize that every time reversion made [[NiceJobBreakingItHero XANA stronger]], with that season's finale even having XANA abuse it himself to stop the heroes from completing their mission.
** It also has the limitation of being unable to bring people back from the dead. How the heroes know this is never revealed.
* The ''WesternAnimation/CodeMonkeys'' episode "Todd Loses His Mind" has a very literal ResetButtonEnding: just as Dave and Jerry are about to be shot by Mr. Larrity, and Todd is about to blow up Gameavision HQ, the Code Monkeys "game" locks up, and the "player" is forced to start over.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' episode "The Family Cruise", when the cruise ship that Dan, Chris, Elise and her parents are on enters a rift in space-time parodying TheBermudaTriangle, it goes back to right before Elise finished packing and only Dan remembers what happened. This time around Dan gets hit in the face when Elise's parents open the front door, knocking him out cold and Elise duct tapes him to a chair so he doesn't follow them.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'':
** Employed once via time travel and once with a wish. ([[FanonDiscontinuity The episode with the wish is generally ignored by fans]]) To be fair, it stopped quite a lot of death from occurring, including Danny's ''whole family''. It did have (fortunate) repercussions, however. Danny is now aware that Jazz knows his SecretIdentity.
** And one using the [[RealityWarper Reality Gauntlet]] to erase his parents' memories of his life as a half ghost. For a show with continuity, this is a jarring StatusQuoIsGod moment.
* In the intended GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dexter finally reveals his secret laboratory to his parents, while Dexter himself finds out his monkey is a superhero. (These are two things kept secret for the rest of the series). The very last shot of the episode has Dexter's memory-erasing ray used to revert everyone's memories back to where they were when the episode began except Dee Dee, who was already in on both secrets from the beginning anyway.
* One ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' episode spoofs the Superman movie time reversal: [[spoiler: Captain Hero does this while in a wheelchair, reversing time to the Big Bang. Then he takes TheSlowPath back to the present by waiting]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Timmy frequently has to hit the Reset Button by un-wishing whatever disaster his thoughtless wishing caused ''this'' time -- often delayed by lost or stolen wands.
** Played straight when the show was UnCanceled. Well let's just say it was pushed as soon as the newborn baby "breaks wind" (It also caused a DisneyAcidSequence) and it was all worth it to SaveTheWorld (and the entire universe) from certain doom.
** One episode includes Timmy wishing for a literal reset button, and [[GroundhogDayLoop going through his day dozens of times]].
** In the "Fairy Idol" special, Norm the [[JackassGenie Genie]] explains in the beginning that everyone's ThreeWishes always go through the same format: 1)something stupid and simple (like a sandwich), 2)something world changing that backfires on the wish-maker, and finally 3)wishing they never met the genie so that everything goes back to normal. [[spoiler:In the end, his plan to cause Timmy to lose his godparents is foiled when Chester, who was Norm's latest master and learned that he was being manipulated, remembers that he still has one last genie wish and makes the traditional "I wish I never met you" wish.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** This happens in an episode in which Stewie builds a TimeMachine.
** At the end of the episode "FOX-y Lady", Peter asks Lois how she lost her job at FOX News. She answers, "Oh I don't know. Does anyone really care?" Peter says that she's right- by the end of every episode everything is back to normal.
** This trope is subverted in one episode: Peter loses his job and doesn't get it back at the end of the episode.
** It is also {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in one episode where Peter tries smoking and gets hideously deformed, but assures his family that "everything will be back to normal next week".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' did this twice:
** In the episode "The Late Philip J. Fry," everything in the year 3010 remains the same as before, despite various screwing with the timelines as the universe cycled.
** The final episode of the series, "Meanwhile," featured a ''literal'' reset button that reset the universe to the state it was in ten seconds prior to the button being pushed. Since the button took ten seconds to recharge, it couldn't be used to travel back in time but could create a stable time-loop which - this being ''Futurama'' - is exactly what happens, at least prior to an invocation of Twilight Zone plot.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' episode "Wishbones", Grim wishes for all of the episode's events to have never happened. It then cuts to the beginning of the episode, where Billy is watching the washing machine, thinking it's TV. This time, Mandy stuffs him in the washing machine.
-->'''Mandy''': ''[sarcastically]'' And what show is this we're watching?\\
'''Billy''': My favorite: ''Laundry Day''!\\
'''Mandy''': Billy, would you like to be on TV?\\
'''Billy''': I wish!\\
''[Mandy opens the washing machine and sticks Billy in]''\\
'''Mandy''': Wish granted.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Several characters[[note]]usually not counting Quack-Quack since [[NighInvulnerability he cannot die]], though this still applies to him sometimes[[/note]] have been decapitated, blown up, launched into orbit, driven to madness, turned into zombies, [[TrappedInAnotherWorld trapped in alternate dimensions]] [[TrappedInThePast or different time periods]]... Heck, [[spoiler:the world even [[ApocalypseHow blew up]]]] once! Yet everything is always back to normal in the next episode.
* The three-part TimeTravel episode of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', "A Sitch in Time", undoes all memory and consequences of its events by story's end. The twist: Ron retains the memory of hating Norwegian meatcakes, even though his move to Norway was undone, and thus he never tasted any.
* The GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/MightyMax'' has this as the only way to stop the BigBad from using the cap to take over the world. However, the way it seems to work is a bit of a NewGamePlus, with our heroes retaining the knowledge of all that had transpired during their first go-round (with the hope that they can actually defeat the Skullmaster this time).
* Extremely common in ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
** One of Ladybug's signature powers is the titular "Miraculous Ladybug", a WorldHealingWave that undoes all damage inflicted by Ladybug and her fellow Miraculous during the course of the battle, up to and including bringing back people killed by Miraculous magic.
** Similarly, the power of the Snake Miraculous is "Second Chance", which lets the user rewind time to the moment he activated it.
** In at least two separate episodes, Ladybug and Cat Noir have discovered each other's true identities and resolved the [[TwoPersonLoveTriangle Miraculous Love Square]]. However, in both cases their memories were erased and the love square restored.
** The show's primary villain, Hawkmoth, is trying to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses because combining them will let him make a Wish. It's been implied that he wants to use this Wish to undo whatever event left his wife trapped in a magical coma.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'' episode "Wrong Place, Wrong Time", the ninja prevent [[BigBad Lord Garmadon]] from helping his past self defeat Kai by destroying his weapon that he used to go back in time in the first place. The episode ends with them at the beginning, where the weapon apparently never existed at all, [[VoodooShark bringing up all kinds of questions]].
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' regularly does this PlayedForLaughs, so the show can find the most off-the-wall ways to prevent the boys from getting caught by their mother.
** Usually the resetting is limited to the boys not getting caught, but "She's the Mayor" went WAY farther. After becoming mayor of Danville for a day, Candace uses her position to reveal her brothers' newly built classic frontier village (complete with gold-loving old coot). Just as Linda calls the boys out to punish them, Doofenshmirtz activates his Accelerate-inator (which he invented [[ItMakesSenseInContext to speed up having to play golf with his brother]]) which opens up holes in the space time continuum (which Doof knew would happen, but figured it was worth it), resetting everything back to earlier that day, with the old coot winning the contest instead and no one having any knowledge of what happened.
--->'''Candace:''' ''[after watching the news]'' I was robbed!
** The TV Movie "[[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension Across the 2nd Dimension]]" did this, erasing the characters' knowledge of Perry's secret identity at the end of the movie. In addition, the movie parodies the continued use of this trope: After dozens of "coincidental" occurrences, Candace begins to believe that there is a literal "mysterious force" that prevents her mom from ever seeing what her brothers are doing. (Actually, she more-or-less prays to it in an earlier episode, "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted".) After Candace disappears through an interdimensional portal, best friend Stacy even builds a shrine to the "mysterious force".
* Literally pressed in ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' by the [[HumansAreCthulhu User]]. Two keystrokes, and Mainframe is restored to its season 1 state. It even brings back dead characters, and clones Enzo. This was a risk though, as the characters had to make the user restart the system, and there was a chance that everything would just outright crash.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Rick Potion #9", Rick manages to turn everyone in the world into monsters. Every attempt he makes at reversing the effects of his accidental plague just makes things exponentially worse. His eventual solution : [[spoiler:Find an alternate universe in which that Rick got lucky and cured humanity, AND in which Rick and Morty died in an unrelated laboratory accident shortly after. Our Rick and Morty simply buried the bodies before they were discovered and took over their lives]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Subverted in a (non-canon) ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' story, in which Homer's brain is taken out and placed in a robot by Mr. Burns, but his lack of motivation and love of donuts overrides any orders given to him and he ends up only causing destruction and doing nothing. In the end Mr. Burns puts Homer's brain back, but he is crushed under the weight of the heavy robot's body. He tells his assistant Smithers to get surgical tools and ether before Homer wakes up screaming in bed, thinking the whole story was just a dream... then he notices that Mr. Burns' head was grafted onto his shoulder as a way of preserving him. A teaser of the next episode of the Simpsons involves Homer being stuck in an SitCom-esque situation where Lisa reminds him her class is having an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner while Mr. Burns points out that they have to go to the reception for Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. This causes Homer to exclaim, "Oh, I hate having two heads!" (Luckily for him, the ''Treehouse of Horror'' episodes actually exist in NegativeContinuity.)
** ''The Simpsons'' is also home to one of the best-known and controversial Reset Button of modern times: [[spoiler:Principal Skinner turns out to actually be named Armin Tamzarian, having assumed the identity of Seymour Skinner years ago, including Skinner's dream of being a school principal. The original shows up and wants to take over the position, but no one likes him. Just after the real Skinner is put on a train out of Springfield,]] Judge Snyder declares that [[ShaggyDogStory anybody mentioning the events of that episode would be tortured]].
*** This is briefly referenced in "I Doh-Bot". Snowball II is run over by a car and Lisa adopts two new cats who each die. Then the Crazy Cat Lady throws a cat at her that looks exactly like Snowball II just as Principal Skinner walks by.
---->'''Lisa''': I'm keeping you! You're Snowball V! But to save money on a new dish, we'll just call you Snowball II, and pretend this whole thing never happened.\\
'''Principal Skinner''': That's really a cheat, isn't it?\\
'''Lisa''': I guess you're right, [[spoiler: Principal Tamzarian]].
** The episode "Das Bus" ends with Bart, Lisa and most of their friends still stranded on a remote island, reset as an afterthought by a single line from the [[Creator/JamesEarlJones narrator]] that sounds suspiciously like it's being made up on the spot:
-->''"Eventually they were rescued by oh, let's say... Moe."''
** A similar example occurs in the episode "Donnie Fatso", where [[spoiler:Fat Tony dies and is replaced by his cousin Fit Tony, who lets himself go after the pressure of the job gets to him and becomes Fat Fit Tony, then just Fat Tony]].
** And a lampshading by Lisa: "Don't worry, Bart. It seems like every week something odd happens to the Simpsons. My advice is to ride it out, make the occasional smart-alec quip, and by next week we'll be back to where we started from, ready for another wacky adventure."
** "Lisa episodes", with "Lisa the Vegetarian" as the exception, tend to do this. "She Of Little Faith"? Lisa's Buddhism is (almost) never mentioned again. "Lard of The Dance"? Alex Whitney never appears or is mentioned again, except for a one-liner and the occasional cameo. "Bye Bye Nerdie"? Francine and Poindextrose are never mentioned again. So it makes sense that Lisa has mild MediumAwareness.
** Brilliantly used in the episode "Thank God It's Doomsday", when Homer asks God to take back the Apocalypse:
--->'''God:''' To do what you're asking, I'd have to turn back time.\\
'''Homer:''' [[Film/SupermanTheMovie Superman did it]]!\\
'''God:''' Fine smartypants, I will undo the Apocalypse.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** The Imaginationland trilogy has [[SugarApocalypse terrorists invade our imagination, the evil characters taking over, and Al Gore nuking the area]]. [[TheChosenOne Butters]] restores everything to the way it was in the end.
** The DeusExMachina ending of TheMovie is also thanks to the Reset Button.
** Kenny's death, sometimes even a {{lampshade|Hanging}}.
* The episode "The Fantastic Mr. Frump" of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAndHisAmazingFriends'' featured an ordinary man who accidentally gained reality-warping powers. After being egged on by Doctor Doom and unintentionally causing a great deal of trouble (including summoning up "the [[EldritchAbomination weirdest creature in the universe]]"), everything gets reset back to normal:
-->'''Spider-Man:''' I can't believe that in a minute we're going to forget something as incredible as all this!\\
'''Iceman:''' As incredible as what?\\
'''Spider-Man:''' ''[shrugs]''
* In the first of a two part episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' entitled "The Hobgoblin", Peter Parker finally moves out of his Aunt May's house to live with Harry Osborn in an apartment. To keep the status quo, he cannot be allowed to stay in said apartment, so the writers fabricated a rather flimsy excuse. During a visit by Aunt May to Peter's new apartment, which has been trashed from the previous night's housewarming party, the Hobgoblin attacks and kidnaps Harry, in the process sending Aunt May into a shock so fierce she goes into some kind of coma. She remains this way until the end of the next episode, after which she wakes up and tells Peter, to his surprise, her shock was at the mess in his apartment and not the Hobgoblin's attack. After which Peter thinks he's not ready to move out on his own, so he moves back in with his Aunt and by the next episode, the status quo is back to normal.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', all of Mr. Mxyzptlk's handiwork is apparently undone when Superman tricks him into returning to the fifth dimension.
* In the fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', Raven becomes the portal for her father [[SatanicArchetype Trigon]] to enter the world, after which he [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt transforms the entire planet]] into a [[LethalLavaLand lava-covered inferno]]. However, at the end of the battle, Raven calls upon [[ThePowerOfFriendship the powers of friendship]] [[DeusExMachina and godlike power]] to reset everything and restore the world to its original form.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': The major goal of Season One ArcVillain Nox is to power up a magical one of these by harvesting vast amounts of [[LifeEnergy wakfu]] to feed into the [[AmplifierArtifact Eliacube]] in order to power up existing Time Control magic and [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong save his family]], at the same time erasing his past misdeeds of the 200 years since that tragedy and thus making him feel no remorse for the destruction he leaves behind. In the end, [[spoiler:he [[TheBadGuyWins kills or at least maims most of the main cast and collects the necessary wakfu he sought by wiping out an entire race]] and fires up the device...but to his despair and anger all that death and work only gathered enough to take him back ''20 minutes'' rather than 200 years, only enough time to reset his own "victory". Broken at realizing it was AllForNothing, he teleports away and dies on the graves of his family]].
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' has a bit: When the Brotherhood of Mutants attacks a high-school football game and reveals all of the X-Men, you ''hope.'' [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor Xavier]] mind-wipes a stadium filled with people, and the broadcast was cut thanks to some kind of magnetic corruption of the signal; Xavier concludes that [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] thinks that the time isn't right. There is one lasting problem from this incident, however: because Professor X had to affect so many people, he wasn't able to fully wipe the mind of Edward Kelly, which is implied to be a large part of why he embraced FantasticRacism for the mutants after they were permanently outed.
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' has a flatly ridiculous one: Scott proposes to Jean, she accepts, and they get married in a big ceremony. But, oh no, it turns out the priest was actually a disguised villain, so they're not really married! And despite their feelings not having changed, it never occurs to them to just ''have another ceremony'', until a couple of seasons later. Presumably the idea was to not completely shut down the Scott/Jean/Logan love triangle. They eventually got married for real.
[[/folder]]

** In the first two games, [[spoiler:the whole setting is a GroundhogDayLoop, with various possibilities playing out in a time loop, and then resetting itself. Several characters often die in MultipleEndings and other instances, but never canonically. In the {{Canon}} ending of ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'', however, the Reset Button and the GroundhogDayLoop are removed by [[BigBad Terumi]], so if anyone dies now, [[KilledOffForReal they die for good]]]]. In actuality [[spoiler:[[BigBad Terumi]]]] is merely the catalyst for this whereas the real removal is done by [[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheMan Imperiator Librarious]], who also happens to be Ragna and Jin's possessed LongLostSibling Saya]].
** ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction'' reveals that across the whole series, [[spoiler: [[DeusEstMachina Master Unit Amaterasu]] and its inhabitant The Origin have been constantly resetting or rewinding the universe to try and usher it towards a version of events where her 'big brother', who she has identified as being Ragna the Bloodedge, can save her from her tortuous situation. Events that lead too much greatly from that are undone one way or the other; give the interference of Izanami and Termui, this has happened many times]].