History Main / RetGone

* At the end of ‘’Fanfic/OyasumiMidoriya’’ Midoriya gives up his physical form and [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascends]] back to wherever he came from. As a result, everyone save for Bakugou forgets he even existed, and the sequel, ‘’Ohayo Midoriya’’ is all about the characters trying to remember what happened.

* In the ''Western/JusticeLeagueAction'' episode "She Wore Red Velvet", the villain Red Velvet turns out to be the future self of Booster Gold's fiance Margo. The Justice League initially think she's attacking Booster for leaving her at the altar, but it later turns out she wants to prevent her marriage because Booster was a lousy husband. She succeeds in convincing her past self not to marry Booster Gold and is effectively erased from the timeline.

** The politician Chris from "[[Recap/FuturamaS7E3Decision3012 Decision 3012]]" comes from a BadFuture, where Richard Nixon won the 3012 election, which he must prevent. Once Chris accomplishes his mission and wins the election, he is erased from the timeline since the BadFuture no longer exists, and all forget him.

* At the end of the ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' between [[Franchise/RickAndMorty Rick Sanchez]] and [[Series/DoctorWho The Doctor]], Rick suffers this fate when The Doctor redirects a shot from his own D-Mat Gun (at the time being wielded by Rick) through one of Rick's portals so that it hits Rick instead.

** ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E11AndWhenTheSkyWasOpened And When the Sky Was Opened]]", three astronauts return from a trip into space and disappear one at a time. As each disappears, only one of the astronauts remembers that the others existed, until he disappears too, then the spacecraft they returned in vanishes as well. Every time someone disappears, the audience sees that day's newspaper, saying something along these lines each time: "Three men return from space", "Two men return from space", "Lone man returns from space", and something about a "miracle birth".
** ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Card", Linda Wolfe receives an invitation from a credit card company that specifically caters to people with a bad credit rating who have had their previous cards cancelled. When she misses the first payment, she finds that the family cat Boris has disappeared and [[RippleEffectProofMemory she is the only one to remember that he even existed]]. The following week, Linda misses the second payment and their dog Scooby disappears. Linda vows never to use the card again but she is forced to do so when her car breaks down. When she gets home that night, she discovers that her children Matt, Evan and B.J. have disappeared. The next day, Linda goes to the card company and demands to speak to the office manager Catherine Foley. While there, she sees her children, who fail to recognize her, being led into a room marked "Disbursements." Mrs. Foley explains to her that they may be returned to her if she writes them a check. Linda does so but Brian tells her that the bank called and he cancelled it. Further penalties are then made against her. Brian disappears and household items begin to vanish in front of her. When she cuts the card in half, it falls to the ground. The final scene shows that Linda herself has ceased to exist and there is an empty lot where her house once stood.
** One of the episodes of ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'' series called "Upgrade" was about a woman who wished for a perfect family. She gets her wish, and her children are replaced by more perfect children. However, eventually she is replaced. It's revealed that they live in a computer game, whose player decided to replace her characters.

* A particularly horrifying example happens to Sayori in ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' after being DrivenToSuicide in a sort of bad ending for the game. When you start the game again, it initially tries to render her interactions but they all come out as broken sprites and garbage text, before the game resets and treats her as if she never existed. Though the player may easily not notice it, this correlates with her file being gone from the "Characters" folder. The same sort of thing can also happen to other characters if their files are removed and the game is restarted. ItMakesSenseInContext, but to explain why would spoil the whole plot even more than this.

* A particularly horrifying example happens to Sayori in ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' after being DrivenToSuicide at the end of Act 1. Initially the game tries to render her interactions but they all come out as broken sprites and garbage text, before the game resets and treats her as if she never existed. Though the player may easily not notice it, this correlates with her file being gone from the "Characters" folder. The same sort of thing can also happen to other characters if their files are removed and the game is restarted. ItMakesSenseInContext, but to explain why would spoil the whole plot even more than this.

** Discussed and inverted in the plot of the film. Cable intends to travel to Deadpool's present time to kill Russell Collins (a.k.a. Firefist), so that he would cease to exist in Cable's own time and not turn into a supervillain that would have killed his family. However, Deadpool objects to this, believing that he could talk Russell out of going down that dark path, and decides to suppress his own superpowers and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice his own life to save Russell from the last bullet from Cable's pistol during the climatic confrontation against him. This convinces Russell not to kill anyone, therefore giving Cable's family a chance to exist in his own time. After Deadpool's [[{{Padding}} slow]], [[FaceDeathWithDignity dramatic death]], he then descends into the afterlife to join his wife, Vanessa, who then tells him that he has finally found peace in having a heart for Russell and can join her in death, but before he could settle in and accept his demise, he is suddenly [[BackFromTheDead pulled back into existence and the world of the living]] when Cable went back in time once again to retrieve Deadpool's stolen memento and uses that to [[PocketProtector block the fatal shot he fired]], allowing Deadpool to live on to appear in another planned sequel]].

* ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/471497/chapters/815855 Time v.3.0]]'' is a ''Doctor Who'' fanfic that tries to make sense of the Great Time War. As expected of Doctor Who, there are countless examples of [[TimeCrash time being smashed into bits]], and not everything is fixed. Most notable are the Rani's self-obliteration to escape the madness of the Time War, and the Doctor's display of his own limited ability to [[IRejectYourReality replace past events with his own preferred outcome. [[FridgeLogic Tears ensue]] upon the realization that even with all that power, he still couldn't save his companions]].

* In the MagicalGirl CrisisCrossover ''Fanfic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'', an EldritchAbomination that [[SpaceTimeEater eats existence is unleashed on the [[Anime/PrettyCure Precure universe]], resulting in every post-[[Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure Go Princess]] continuity being retgonned out of existence entirely, and all possible futures of the surviving ten continuities (called "Facets") being consumed. The resulting catastrophic TimeCrash causes these ten Facets to collapse together into a hellish MergedReality.]]

** ''ComicBook/Supergirl2005'': A later version of the Dark Angel tried to do this to the Post-Crisis ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} by trapping her in a horrifying illusion without her knowledge. If Supergirl had mentally, physically, or spiritually broken, Dark Angel would have had the authority to erase her. Supergirl survived the test, but Dark Angel decided to erase her anyway, only to be stopped by her boss, The Monitor.

* As a result of ComicBook/{{New 52}} putting all the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age DC heroes]] back in a [[ComicBook/Earth2 separate universe]] and making them younger, Obsidian and his sister Jade no longer exist because their father isn't old enough to have adult children. Because of this, the writers transferred Obsidian's sexual orientation to the new version of [[Characters/GreenLantern1941 the man who had previously been his father]].

* ''ComicBook/New52'': Lian Harper, the daughter of Wally's teammate Roy Harper and the assassin Cheshire was retconned out by the reboot. Though Lian had already been killed off prior to the reboot, ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws'' made it clear that Roy and Cheshire had never met before, meaning they couldn't have had a kid. Roy eventually regained his memories of Lian during ''ComicBook/DCInfiniteFrontier'' before it was revealed that Lian had somehow come back into existence ([[PlotRelevantAgeUp]] several years older) as part of the supporting cast of ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}''.

** The time-traveling villain Eobard Thawne a.k.a. Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash has learned to weaponize this, frequently erasing people from both history either for his own benefit or to make Barry Allen suffer. More than once he's just done it because he felt slighted by the now-deleted party, and the only reason he didn't erase Barry himself was because it would destabilize his own origin.
** In ComicBook/DCRebirth, it's revealed Wally got retgonned following ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'', thrown out of time until he could find a way back to reality. Unfortunately, he and Linda both lost a few years of their lives... which included their entire relationship.
* ''ComicBook/New52'': Lian Harper, the daughter of Wally's teammate Roy Harper and the assassin Cheshire was retconned out by the reboot. Though Lian had already been killed off prior to the reboot, ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws'' made it clear that Roy and Cheshire had never met before, meaning they couldn't have had a kid. Roy eventually regained his memories of Lian during ''ComicBook/DCInfiniteFrontier'' before it was revealed that Lian had somehow come back into existence ([[PlotRelevantAgeUp several years older) as part of the supporting cast of ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'']].

** Some cards, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=73559 Door to Nothingness]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=49075 Æther Snap]] do this, according to their {{flavor text}}s.

** Apparently it happened to Zhalfir. [[TimeMaster Teferi]] "phased it out" (transported it to the future) to prepare for the Phyrexian invasion, and when it was time for it to "phase in", it couldn't.
** Due to the {{Time Travel}} aspects of the Tarkir block, certain characters are changed or vanish. One of the Legendary creatures in the Mystic Intellect precon deck - Elsha of the Infinite - doesn't exist anymore as her timeline was destroyed due to that time traveling.

* ''TableTopGame/MagicTheGathering'': At the end of the Tarkir story-line, Sarkhan Vol significantly alters alters his world's history so that dragons never went extinct on that world. Despite over a thousand years of altered history, most people Sarkhan knew still very much exist (albeit with heavily altered lives). However, none of them have any recollection of Sarkhan himself, as he apparently was never born in this time-line. Paradoxically, every event he took part in on ''other'' worlds was completely unaffected (as it includes some pretty important ones in the MTG time-line). He doesn't angst over it for long, instead seeing it as a fresh start on a better version of his world.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', Sam gets in a fight with Danny and wishes they had never met. In the presence of a [[LiteralGenie wish-granting ghost]]. Take a wild guess what happens. Sam herself is unaffected, thanks to a Fenton Device. It's revealed that she's directly responsible for his powers (and his snazzy new shirt logo). The fading-photograph trope (resulting in awkward gaps that wouldn't have actually happened) features heavily (although why the warded copies were on her person in the first place... just go with it). While in the presence of the wish-granter again, she managed to [[ResetButton wish everything back to normal]] (relatively speaking), except for the outfit.

** This includes almost everyone in the [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Universe]] except for ComicBook/MilesMorales, [[ComicBook/TheUltimates Bombshell]], their supporting cast, and [[ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour The Maker]].

Sometimes, without this character, the world is a [[ForWantOfANail notably different place]], but sometimes, [[InSpiteOfANail hardly anything]] has changed at all.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', if Megatron's scheme had worked out, the entire Maximal race would have been negated from history and would never have existed. However, it's revealed in the video game of the series that, had his scheme worked, ForWantOfANail would've kicked in, dooming the Decepticons, their ancestors, as well, because without Optimus Prime there would be no [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie Matrix of Leadership to stop Unicron from chowing down on Cybertron]].

* In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', any devil [[AbstractEater that is eaten]] by the Chainsaw Devil is erased from existence, along with the memories of them and even the fear they represent. This has [[AlternateHistory altered history, erasing such as UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, nuclear weapons, and AIDS--but also things [[NeverWasThisUniverse real history never had]], like something called "Arnolone Syndrome" or a star whose light drove children insane.]] The BigBad of Part 1 wants to obtain this power or failing that, allow herself to be eaten and erased out of a twisted sense of love towards the Chainsaw Devil and revenge against the world. Since Makima is the Control Devil, this would cause complete societal collapse. One of the main goals of [[VillainProtagonist the War Devil]] in Part 2 of the series is to make Denji "throw up" the Nuclear Weapons Devil, thus restoring said devil's concept.

** [[spoiler: The first movie, ''[[Anime/BleachMemoriesOfNobody Memories of Nobody]]'', ends with Senna fading from existence. It's a bit of a subversion for two reasons: Originally she never really existed in the first place being a collection of random memories given a soul, and Ichigo walks right by her in the movie's ending.]] Still, she's essentially Ret-Goned. Because she's a [[spoiler:movie character]] she's probably never going to be brought up in canon again, meaning she's never going to be re-introduced to the cast.
** [[spoiler:In ''[[Anime/BleachFadeToBlack Fade to Black]]'', Rukia gets an incomplete dose of this trope. The force behind this isn't powerful enough to completely erase her; Zanpakutou spirits and artificial souls such as Kon are immune to the effect, and physical evidence such as written notes remain. Ichigo also regains his memories with a bit of nudging, as the force couldn't Ret-Gone the fact that Rukia was the original source of his powers.]]

* In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', any devil [[AbstractEater that is eaten]] [[spoiler:by the Chainsaw Devil]] is erased from existence, along with the memories of them and even the fear they represent. [[spoiler:This has [[AlternateHistory altered history]], erasing such as UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, nuclear weapons, and AIDS--but also things [[NeverWasThisUniverse real history never had]], like something called "Arnolone Syndrome" or a star whose light drove children insane.]] The BigBad of Part 1 wants to obtain this power [[spoiler:or failing that, allow herself to be eaten and erased out of a twisted sense of love towards the Chainsaw Devil and revenge against the world. Since Makima is the Control Devil, this would cause complete societal collapse.]] One of the main goals of [[VillainProtagonist the War Devil]] in Part 2 of the series is to make [[spoiler:Denji]] "throw up" [[spoiler:the Nuclear Weapons Devil]], thus restoring said devil's concept.

** In the end of the Clow Card arc of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', Sakura is threatened with something like this should she fail: no one will actually be gone [[spoiler:except Yukito in the anime, who disappears with Kero, Yue, and the Cards]], but everyone will forget that their most beloved person ever meant anything to them.
** ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' and ''Manga/XxxHolic'' are connected by a Ret-Gone in which [[spoiler:the real Syaoran]] of ''Tsubasa'', the son of ''reincarnated in the past'' [[spoiler:Clone Sakura and Clone Syaoran (and not of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' Sakura and Syaoran as previously thought)]], gave up his existence in his home world for the [[spoiler:Sakura of the world of Clow]]. In order to fill the gap this left in space-time, a new son (who had not previously existed in any world) was created for [[spoiler:Clone Sakura and Clone Syaoran]], [[spoiler:Watanuki Kimihiro of ''Holic'']]. [[spoiler:Watanuki]]'s existence is therefore precarious and could be erased by [[spoiler:the real Syaoran]]'s death or by the Tsubasa gang correcting the space-time disturbance. The point of ''Holic'' has been for [[spoiler:Watanuki]] to develop connections to other people that will anchor him to existence when the endgame comes.

*** Also, [[spoiler:Yuuko Ichihara]] of ''Manga/XxxHolic'' suffers this once she re-dies. She actually died centuries ago, but a RealityWarper told reality to ignore that for a while. When she sells that "reality ignore my death" effect in a DealWithTheDevil of her own, all of a sudden, to most people it is as if she had never kept on living for hundreds of years.
* [[spoiler:Fuuko]] in ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}''. Gradually, everyone forgets that she's been running around the school lately and becomes unable to see or remember her. Eventually, only Tomoya remembers her. [[spoiler:The starfishes she carved stay around, a handful of characters like Sunohara and the Furukawa family kind-of but not quite remember her. She gets better if you make the right decisions.]]

* In ''Manga/DevilmanLady'' this happened to [[spoiler: an entire nation of demon worshipers]] and ''[[spoiler: the events of Devilman ]]''.

* One of the most dangerous gadgets Manga/{{Doraemon}} owns, the Dictator Switch, has the effect of completely erasing a person from existence. Press it in front of someone, and they, along with everything related to their existence, will be erased and no one will remember them. That's already dangerous enough, but it can be ''worse'' if used to make the ''entire population of a planet'' disappear. Despite this, Doraemon is still somehow unerased from existence because he's the only owner of the gadget aside from [[spoiler:a dictator]].
* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheSteelTroops'' have Riruru, the RobotGirl who's initially serving the hostile robot army of Mechatopia, eventually pulling a HeelFaceTurn after becoming friends with the heroes. With a RobotWar about to break out, Riruru instead follows Shizuka on TimeTravel (via the TimeMachine in Nobita's desk) to Planet Mechatopia 30,000 years ago, when the first generatin of robots, Amu and Emu, are being created. They managed to reprogram Amu and Emu and remove their competitive tendencies, thereby turning the robots of Mechatopia peaceful and preventing the war in the future... but Riruru ends up being erased at the same time. Riruru agrees anyway, essentially performing a HeroicSacrifice - as back at the present, the thousands of thousands of hostile robots quickly dissappears after history rewrites itself.

** Trunks' timeline is eventually a double subversion of this. He changes the past, but creates an AlternateTimeline that he returns to that remains intact [[spoiler: at least until it's eventually erased by Future Zeno.]]
* ''Manga/{{Erased}}'': Inverted with [[spoiler:Mirai Sugita, Kayo and Hiromi's infant son, who now exists thanks to Satoru saving them from becoming the killer's target like in the original timeline. This becomes important as contact with Mirai allows Satoru to regain his missing memories after waking up from his 15-years coma, including the identity of the killer]].

* Used interestingly in ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld''. When a member of Group 1 dies, [[spoiler: the others are brainwashed into forgetting that the vanished person ever existed, and after the death of Shun, who they'd known for a long time, a ReplacementGoldfish is introduced into the group in his place and their memories of Shun are overwritten with ones of the new boy]]. It doesn't take, though; [[spoiler:the ones who knew Shun begin to sense that something is off and don't fully accept his replacement]]. By the story's end, [[spoiler: Saki is able to remember Shun's name and face]].

* TheMovie of ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' -- ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'' -- centers around about what you'd expect. [[spoiler:Haruhi (and Itsuki, who was DemotedToExtra) turn up going to another school. The fantastic secret identities of the SOS Brigade -- including Haruhi -- have likewise been retroactively undone.]]
* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' has this happen in Rei, since [[spoiler:Rika getting hit by a truck sent her to a Hinamizawa where the dam project was still underway in June 1983, and a good portion of the major characters are absent. She's only in a coma though.]]
* In ''Manhua/InfinityGame'' this happens when [[spoiler:a player is in the alternative world when it's destroyed. The only people who remember are the players who weren't in the world at the time, aka. the RPG Society. They intend to do this to Long Wei and his group as erasing his world and returning their world would un-erase their friends. Instead Long Wei fights back and due to time being frozen in the alternative world, he's forced to erase himself from his friends' memories as he won't be able to return to the real world for fifty years and if they remain with him, they won't have anywhere to return to]].

** This is the fate of [[spoiler:[[BigBad Enrico Pucci]]]]. By using his newfound power of [[spoiler:speeding up time, he speeds up time so much that]] [[EternalRecurrence the universe loops back on itself]] and reality is reset. However, as he is killed before completing the loop, the universe [[SnapBack Snaps Back]] into a slightly altered version, and [[spoiler:Enrico Pucci]] is nowhere to be seen. [[DeathByIrony Which is interesting, considering that he wanted to inflict this on the entire Joestar bloodline.]]
** Sadly, this happens to a hero from the same part, as well. [[spoiler:F.F. refuses [[TheHero Jolyne]]'s offer to take the Foo Fighters disc when she dies, on the grounds that even if it were inserted into something else, it wouldn't be her.]] As such, in line with that request, [[spoiler:there is no counterpart for F.F. in the new reality. It wouldn't be possible for her to exist anyway, as Pucci created her by putting the Foo Fighters disc into a patch of plankton, and he's gone too]].

* Occurs in the ending of the early Fujiko Fujio one-shot manga, ''[[https://imgur.com/a/xuYJHfL The Meeting Of Myself]]''. Long story short, the main character meets his future selves from ten, twenty, and thirty years later, as well as his past self aged 5 from nearly a decade ago. They get into an argument involving future investments on property, causing the youngest self to freak out so badly that [[spoiler:the boy ends up throwing himself out a window, causing the present and all future versions of the protagonist to disappear]]. From the creator of ''Doraemon''!
* In ''Manga/NabariNoOu'', this is [[spoiler: Yoite]]'s main goal. He [[spoiler:doesn't succeed in either the manga or anime]].
* In ''Literature/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', [[spoiler:in [[SpaceX space kindergarten]], there was a kid who would bully Hasta, which earned him butt-kickings from Nyarko and Cuko. The bully held onto his grudge for years, and finally got "payback" by erasing them from existence. Mahiro is the only one who remembers the girls because he has RippleEffectProofMemory, and so he enlists the help of Yithka to go back in time and set history back on its proper course.]]

* This is the KnightTemplar antagonist [[spoiler:Oswald]]'s goal in ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': [[spoiler:to change the events of the previous century so the Tragedy of Sablier would never happen. This would essentially erase the current world and kill everyone living within it.]]
* In ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}'' [[spoiler:this happens to Kanba and Shouma in the final episode as the former sacrifices himself to save Himari and Masako, while the latter takes the burden of changing fate from Ringo. The only things left to prove they existed are scars on Himari's forehead and Ringo's arms and Himari's teddy bear with a little note from them inside]].

** In ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar'', when Michiru and Kaoru die, only Saki and Mai remember they ever existed, as Saki discovers when she tries to tell her sister Minori that Kaoru (who Minori was close to) is gone. [[spoiler:When they turn out to be not so dead after all, everybody suddenly remembers them again, even realizing they've been gone lately.]]

** In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', this actually happens to Madoka in the final episode. She wishes to destroy all witches in the past and future before they are born, [[TemporalParadox including her own]], which causes her to become the [[AbstractApotheosis literal embodiment of Hope for magical girls]], and everyone forgets that Madoka Kaname ever existed. The only ones who do remember her are Homura and Madoka's little brother, Tatsuya. [[spoiler:And even WordOfGod says that he will forget about her as he gets older.]]
** In ''Manga/PuellaMagiKazumiMagica'', the Pleiades Saints actually do this to the incubators in all of Asurano. They cast a spell covering the city that makes incubators invisible to everyone and replacing their memories of contracting with Kyubey to have been done with Jubey, a human-created incubator-like creature. They also make [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forgetting they ever cast the spell]] part of it. [[spoiler:The spell gets broken in the final chapters, just in time for the magical girls to remember incubators, their inability to purify Soul Gems, and that Grief Seeds are used to purify Soul Gems, so that there can be a happier ending.]]

** The Archbishop of Gluttony is able to eat the name and memories of his victims. This renders them comatose and erases them from the memories of everyone else [[spoiler:as seen with Rem]].
* The end of the ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' manga has [[spoiler: Utena erased from the memories of the entire cast,]] with the exception of [[spoiler: Touga,]] who mourns [[spoiler: her]] passing worse because [[spoiler: he cannot share his mourning with anyone.]] Only just then, [[spoiler: Chuchu dresses up like Utena, and then Anthy walks by, now dressed in a boy's uniform like Utena had worn, so obviously ''some'' things have changed - and, as she says, Utena is not gone, but out there somewhere.]]
** [[spoiler: Same happens in the anime series (minus Touga remembering and Chuchu in Utena's outfit) and Anthy, dressed in civilian's clothes and [[LettingHerHairDown with her hair down]], sets off with Chuchu to find Utena again, implying that she wasn't so much "erased" as "moved away" from the other characters' world, which signifies her transition from childhood to adulthood -- and, for Anthy, freeing herself from Akio and his plans (and leaving Akio deprived of her presence as his pawn, thus making all his plans crumble from then on as he can't set duels without Anthy as the Rose Bride anymore) and giving her the chance to ''finally'' start her own life.]]
* Happens to [=ChibiUsa=] in both versions of ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' that she is in; in the [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]] it's due to [[spoiler: Mamoru being placed in an almost permanent state of dreaming by Queen Nehellenia]] in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] it's due to [[spoiler: Mamoru being thrown into the Galaxy Cauldron and melting away, soul and all.]], which causes her to never exist since [[spoiler: Usagi can't get together with a guy who either never existed or has been brainwashed into a coma]]. She also gets retgoned after [[spoiler: Galaxia Kills Mamoru]] In the manga, contrary to standard Grandfather Clauses, [=ChibiUsa=] is able to survive for an unusual amount of time after the point where her birth is made technically impossible; the future just becomes very stormy and unstable. In the anime version of this she's almost entirely retgoned however, vanishing from photos. The Sailor Senshi still seem to remember her however, they just can't tell things that are supposed to show her have changed. Chibi-Usa survives because [[spoiler: when Galaxia kills Mamoru, she just takes his Golden Crystal]]. At that point, it's still possible for him to be revived [[spoiler: as it happens later in that arc]]. However once he's thrown into the Cauldron, he's pretty much dead until Sailor Moon defeats Chaos.
** Spoofed in the ''Super S'' arc of the anime, when a girl who crushes on Mamoru appears and it looks like she might swipe Mamoru for herself. Chibi-Usa has a rather tragicomical ImagineSpot where Mamoru runs off with the RomanticFalseLead and leaves Usagi, who then wails that "Chibi-Usa will not even be boooooorn!". Chibi-Usa brings herself back to the real world and tries to tell Usagi to kick the runner-up out of Mamoru's surroundings, but Usagi blows her off and says she's not worried about losing Mamoru's love. [[spoiler:The Runner Up eventually realizes she can't break them up, and willingly steps out.]]
* In ''Anime/{{Sarazanmai}}'', this happens to the zombies' former human selves once their shirikodama is taken [[spoiler:and would have happened to Kazuki if he had given up his own shirikodama to save Haruka.]]
* This is essentially the power of [[spoiler:Ukoku Sanzo's Muten Sutra]] in ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}'', as he shows Sanzo first-hand: literally, 'the power of nothingness'. It also extends to things, though, not just people, but the effect it has on people is what makes it fit the trope.
* At the end of ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' [[spoiler:The main character Lain does this ''to herself'']].

* In ''Anime/SSSSGridman'', this is what happens to anyone who is killed during a Kaiju attack. Once the battle is over, history is rewritten to make people think the victims died several years earlier. Later episodes reveal that the fog kaiju are responsible for maintaining this. [[spoiler:Once Anonymous B kills them all in its rampage, the damage to the present sticks.]]
* ''Anime/TenchiInTokyo'', [[spoiler:Yugi apparently "Ret Hered" her shadow Sakuya into the community- everyone else is given FakeMemories of her, her name's put into the records of her apartment building, etc. Once Sakuya realizes she doesn't remember anything but Tenchi ''and'' Yugi decides she's served her purpose, all the illusions are undone and Sakuya is Ret-Goned again -- Tenchi's friends don't remember her, her name disappears from the records, and she disappears from a previously-taken photo, even when Tenchi ''still'' remembers her presence.]]

* ''Manga/TimeStrangerKyoko'' has this happen to the titular character. [[spoiler: After giving Ui her body back, Kyoko returns to earth to see her friends one last time. She's invisible, can't be heard. Her father explains that her friends didn't forget about her. It's that she never existed in their hearts to begin with.]] She gets better.
* ''Manga/TheTitansBride'': Due to how summoning magic works in Eustil, the circumstances of Koichi's presence ends up poking a hole in the dimensional "wall" between his home world and Eustil that keeps the worlds separate and stable. It takes one month for it to repair itself, but it also means he would need to make a very important decision: leave Caius behind and return home, or form a contract that would also essentially rewrite history to where Koichi never existed back in his original home. [[spoiler:He heavily considered going back home due to his sentimental ties with his mother and classmates, but ultimately stays with Caius.]]
* During the final arc of ''Manga/UshioAndTora'', the BigBad causes his minions to delete all trace of Ushio from everyone's memories, including those he sees everyday or whose life he saved. Fortunately, Tora can still see him even when the other youkai can't.
* The fate of [[spoiler:most]] Kanshuu's victim on ''Manga/WorldEmbryo''.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': [[spoiler:The M.O. of the BigBad of Season 4 is to mentally torture his victims with the darkness and guilt in their hearts until they believe they don't deserve to exist -- and then grant their wish.]]

** Some cards, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=73559 Door to Nothingness]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=49075 Æther Snap]] do this, according to their {{flavor text}}s.

* Towards the end of ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', several universes have been subjected to this. Survivors find that in the new universe, nobody remembers that they ever existed. Those characters [[spoiler:are then killed off in the remainder of the book, and promptly forgotten by those few who still remembered them. Ouch.]]

* DC's second Chronos removed ''himself'' from history, since this was the only way to prevent his adoptive mother being killed in a car crash. Due to the nature of his powers, he continues to exist, but no one remembers him. [[spoiler:Except his biological father, who remembers him being born and then vanishing.]]

* ''ComicBook/New52'': Lian Harper, the daughter of Wally's teammate Roy Harper and the assassin Cheshire was retconned out by the reboot. Though Lian had already been killed off prior to the reboot, ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws'' made it clear that Roy and Cheshire had never met before, meaning they couldn't have had a kid. Roy eventually regained his memories of Lian during ''ComicBook/DCInfiniteFrontier'' [[spoiler: before it was revealed that Lian had somehow come back into existence ([[PlotRelevantAgeUp several years older]]) as part of the supporting cast of ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'']].

** When [[spoiler: Superman and Wonder Woman kissed]], it had the side-effect of [[spoiler:erasing Booster Gold from existence.]] People still remember, but they only think he has disappeared. As a man from the future, [[spoiler: Booster Gold]] disappearing is quite ominous... [[spoiler:He ended up getting collected by Brainiac, leading into the events of ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}''.]]
* [[spoiler: The fate of reality, courtesy of the Anti-Monitor, according to the Amazonian prophecy,]] in DC's ''ComicBook/DarkseidWar''.

* In ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'', it's revealed [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Dr. Manhattan]] did this to Alan Scott before he could become Franchise/GreenLantern, the Kents while Clark was a teenager and Saturn Girl of the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes, resulting in the ComicBook/New52 DCU. At the end of ''Doomsday Clock'', he undoes all of them to varying degree as bringing back Alan and the Kents also undid Alan's HeroicSacrifice against D'arken pre-''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' and Jonathan's fatal heart attack in ''ComicBook/SupermanBrainiac'' respectively, and undoing Saturn Girl's death created the version of the Legion seen in ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes2020''.]]
* ''ComicBook/MultiversityHarleyScrewsUpTheDCU'' has Harley Quinn find out that, through time-traveling shenanigans she quickly forgot about, she accidentally erased all of the DC superheroes from history and in doing so created a BadFuture where Starro has conquered the world with no one to oppose him. The rest of the miniseries deals with Harley trying to fix her mistakes to restore all the heroes to the timeline while also fighting back against Starro's efforts to prevent her from fixing the timeline. By the end, everything's back to normal [[CloseEnoughTimeline except for Barry Allen reeking of monkey urine because a jar of the stuff was placed by Harley among the chemicals that gave him his super speed]] and [[spoiler:[[SomethingWeForgot Aquaman still being erased from existence due to Harley neglecting to undo her sleeping with Aquaman's human father Tom Curry and getting him killed before he met Aquaman's mother Atlanna]].]]

* An issue of ''ComicBook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}}'' by Peter David had Genis-Vell travel into the future to face his future evil son with Songbird, Ely-Vell, who became a murderous psycho who killed all life on 5 star systems and was trying to free his master, the Magus. Ely is ultimately defeated when [[spoiler: Genis makes the decision to smother him in his crib]]. Once the decision is made, he fades away.

** "Retcon bombs" are the preferred weapon of [[DrivenToVillainy Hobgoblin 2211]], the daughter of that era's Spider-Man. Their first victim is her boyfriend, who helped her escape from her VR prison in the first place. [[spoiler: She herself is erased when Spidey catches one with a webline and swings it back at her, assuming it was just a pumpkin bomb.]]

** In ''ComicBook/EndOfTheSpiderVerse'', the transformed Spider-Totems pass around a strange dagger that, when stabbed into one of the other totems, they seem to just unravel and disappear. [[spoiler:Part 4's ending seems to suggest that it doesn't do this trope, but instead {{retcon}}s them into being unconnected to the Web of Life]].

* Things and beings that didn't make it before (thanks to the Multiversal collapse, courtesy of [[spoiler:the Beyonders]]), during (thanks to simply being killed) and after (more importantly, this is the deciding one) the course of events of Marvel's ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''.

** This is a key point in "The Nearness of You", where Michael Tenicek keeps dreaming of a woman he's never met, yet knows all of her intimate details. It turns out [[spoiler:she was his wife, but got erased in the aftermath of a TimeCrash event due to a CloseEnoughTimeline.]]

** Preventing this is why the Silver Agent willingly allows [[spoiler:himself to be executed]].
* When ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' got cancelled after 3 seasons, the creators failed to find a 4th season on another home channel so they settled on a comic book that focused on Future Steve going back in time to stop alien cows from taking over the earth. In the last issue, Future Steve finally saved the day and helped everyone survive the impending alien cow invasion, but because of this he can't exist anymore.... then only his skin vanishes first! And THEN his muscles! It hurts so much, and he regrets ever saving everyone.
* Rayek in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest: Kings of the Broken Wheel'' wants to take the Palace forward in time and merge it with its former self before it went ''back'' in time. This, he claims, will erase the entire history of the elves, trolls and preservers, except for those who happen to be ''in'' the Palace when the paradox doesn't happen. Confused? In the event, he does take the Palace forward, leaving behind a whole bunch of elves and trolls who are afraid they'll suddenly cease to exist at some point. [[spoiler:Surprise - it doesn't happen. Rayek fails. And then Cutter gets to beat the crap out of him, which Rayek allows to get the ill-feeling out of his system.]]

* In the OELManga ''ComicBook/MikiFalls'', they effectively do this to Miki's Deliverer boyfriend. [[spoiler:It doesn't work on her, even though everyone else forgets.]]

* In the final issues of ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'', Shade ([[WriterOnBoard and Milligan]]) attempted to invert this, and remove Kathy's tragic backstory [[spoiler: and murder]]. It made for an anticlimactic ending, as Shade's personality had come full circle to the socially awkward idealist he was at the beginning, the final page left hanging on his clumsy attempts to reconcile with a woman who no longer had a history with him.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/36957265/chapters/92206114 Be Careful What You Wish For]]'': Inverted when Apollo Justice unwittingly wishes on a Khura'inese artifact that his father never died, creating a new timeline where Jove Justice survived, his mother never vanished, and Apollo has two new sisters, Thalia and Diana Justice. However, [[DramaticIrony currently unbeknownst to Apollo]], this is played straight [[spoiler:with his half-sister Trucy, as since their mother Thalassa Gramarye is still married to Jove, she never remarried to Zak and had her daughter]].

** [[EldritchAbomination Entropy]], as the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Heat Death, is capable of erasing anything from existence at will (at least as long as they're in her [[DimensionLord domain]]). Most notably, she did this to [[AbusiveParents one of her children]] when [[UnPerson ___]] talked back to her, [[spoiler:or so was believed. ____ was actually a KnightTemplar who desired to wipe out all the gods and Entropy did it to stop him, with Fauna Luster actually ''helping'' her because the consequence of ____ winning [[GodzillaThreshold was just that horrible of a prospect]]]]. She's even capable of erasing the other [[TopGod Elders]], just they're capable of willing themselves back ''into'' existence due to being on the same plane as her. She does this to her husband Havoc, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Mass Hysteria, on a regular basis to the point it's described as being equal to one member of a bickering couple shoving the other one.

** The Blank Wolf from Shining Armor's Arc, a mysterious entity that's been chasing Shining Armor, erases anything it eats, and seems intent on doing this to him. Made all the more frightening by its ImplacableMan status. [[spoiler:He ends up turning it on [[BigBad Makarov]]/[[EldritchAbomination The Shadow of Chernobull]] instead. Minuette also gets rid of [[Series/DoctorWho The Master]] by feeding the fob watch that contains his essence to the Blank Wolf. It manages to erase Shining Armor, but his Shadow of Existence fights his way back to Princess Cadence and ThePowerOfLove restores him.]]
** [[spoiler:It is revealed that in the original timeline, Twilight Sparkle's uncle Cool Sun had a daughter named Athena. Unfortunately, when Shining Armor was inserted into the timeline, the changed circumstances made Cool Sun never meet his wife and then die early, meaning Athena never existed. Athena's Shadow of Existence speaks to Shining Armor and forgives him for this.]]
** This briefly happens to [[spoiler:the entire Changeling race after Makarov alters history so that they became extinct. They are restored when Makarov is erased by the Blank Wolf.]]
** [[spoiler:Nightmare Eclipse/Paradox has done this to [[BadFuture Dark World]] several ''billion'' times via her GroundhogDayLoop plan, herself and Discord being the only survivors of the original loop.]]
** A Concept Killing Weapon can erase any object it destroys and any being it kills, and it can kill even a god. [[spoiler:Cupid was killed by one. Erasing him also erased a great multitude of beings, since Cupid wasn't around to make their parents get together.]]
** In the Finale Arc, Nyarlathotrot creates an EvilKnockoff of the Blank Wolf called the Dark Hound or the Moon Howler, with the same ability to erase anything it eats. [[spoiler:With the help of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Button Mash, the Blank Wolf defeats and devours it, [[DeathByIrony so the Dark Hound gets erased itself]].]]
** In the Finale Arc, Discord battles the heroes by [[LiteralSplitPersonality splitting himself into his various character assets]]. [[spoiler:Goatcord, who represented his insanity, gets erased when Scootaloo wraps her cape, which was a gift from Entropy and has some of her power, around her hoof and literally punches him into Oblivion.]]

* In ''Fanfic/LongTermMemories'', this happens to [[FusionDance Garnet]]. [[spoiler: Fusion nullifies Spinel's powers, so she got rid of every memory of fusion in everyone's minds. But since Garnet is a fusion herself, she is immune to Spinel's influence.]] Spinel made her disappear, and implanted FakeMemories in everyone's minds, causing them to either remember her being shattered during the Gem War, or to make them forget about her existence entirely. Steven, Connie and [[spoiler: Amethyst]] are the only ones that remember her.
* There's [[http://www.dotmoon.net/library_view.php?storyid=38 a Sailor Moon fanfic]] where Usagi gives birth to a different child in place of [=ChibiUsa=]. Said child, after ''over nine hundred years'' of living in the shadow of a sister who never existed, eventually manages to [[spoiler: become Sailor Moon, thereby causing [=ChibiUsa=] to disappear from photos and gradually fade from memory.]] Interestingly, this is also one of the few fics to suggest that Usagi would be upset by this situation.

* ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'' shows the darker side of PeggySue stories when Asuka and Shinji are sent back to before the Twelfth Angel but [[spoiler:their daughter is left behind. Fortunately, Kaworu (who was behind the time travel) actually sent her back to a point after the danger had passed]].
-->'''Asuka''': [[spoiler:I have nothing else from her! I don't have photos of her, I don't have one of her drawings, I don't have Kiko, I- I don't have... *sob* Please. That song... that song is all there's left from her.]]

* ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/471497/chapters/815855 Time v.3.0]]'' is a ''Doctor Who'' fanfic that tries to make sense of [[spoiler: the Great Time War]]. As expected of Doctor Who, there are countless examples of [[TimeCrash time being smashed into bits]], and not everything is fixed. Most notable are the [[spoiler:Rani's]] self-obliteration to escape the madness of the [[spoiler:Time War]], and [[spoiler:the Doctor's display of his own limited ability to [[IRejectYourReality replace past events with his own preferred outcome]]. [[FridgeLogic Tears ensue]] upon the realization that even with all that power, he still couldn't save his companions]].
* In the ''MLP'' fanfic ''Fanfic/AftermathOfTheGames'', this happening to [[spoiler: Starlight Glimmer was one of the key aspects to making it an Alternate Universe fic. Princess Twilight tried to talk Starlight down during the events of "The Cutie Remark" and tried to offer her hoof in friendship. Unlike in canon, however, Starlight [[RedemptionRejection rejected it]] underneath the belief that she would be thrown in prison for her crimes if she surrendered. At that point, Twilight had no choice but to encase the villain in a crystal, find the filly Starlight, and ask her if she wanted to run away from her OrphanageOfFear and become her personal student. Filly Starlight eagerly agreed, which wiped the original Starlight out of existence.]]

* In the MagicalGirl CrisisCrossover ''Fanfic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'', [[spoiler: an EldritchAbomination that [[SpaceTimeEater eats existence]] is unleashed on the [[Anime/PrettyCure Precure universe]], resulting in every post-[[Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure Go Princess]] continuity being retgonned out of existence entirely, and all possible futures of the surviving ten continuities (called "Facets") being consumed. The resulting catastrophic TimeCrash causes these ten Facets to collapse together into a hellish MergedReality.]]

* In ''Fanfic/CardcaptorRad'', this is essentially The Erase's shtick. She not only [[spoiler: wipes Rachel from existence]], but that the timeline shifted itself to fill in the gaps the erased person caused. [[spoiler: Thankfully though, Hot Shot still remembered Rachel and managed to get Rad in on the know to seal the card]].
* In ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'' Taylor leads a massive raid on [[spoiler:Commorragh, home of the Dark Eldar]]. This has major implications for [[spoiler:Slaanesh]] who, thanks to the mutable nature of time in the Warp, had many daemon minions created from the souls of both [[spoiler:Dark Eldar]] and their victims who hadn't been born yet. As billions of [[spoiler:Dark Eldar]] die, daemons start disappearing from their citadel having never existed in the first place.
* In ''Fanfic/GazDreamsOfGenie'', Gaz accidentally uses her first wish to erase Dib from existence, after [[FreudianSlip instinctively]] saying she wishes that he'd never been born. When this results in [[VillainWorld a reality where Zim rules Earth]], Gaz uses her second wish to hit the ResetButton (to save herself from being enslaved by the Irkens, mind you, not out of regret). [[spoiler: [[LaserGuidedKarma Ironically, this ends up happening to her a different way later on]], as her third wish (to gain the power to grant wishes herself) results in [[BecomingTheGenie her and the genie Azie switching lives]]. As Azie explains, reality has been altered so that she's always been Dib's sister, and no one remembers Gaz ever existed.]]

* It's revealed in Chapter 44 of ''Fanfic/TheRavensPlan'' that, due to the heroes' use of a risky magical spell that would [[PeggySue send their memories of the future back to the past]] so they can SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and prepare Westeros better against the war with the Others (only for the spell to get ''massively'' overcharged with power, causing ''way'' more people than originally intended to remember), they've inadvertently erased several children from existence, with [[spoiler:Little Sam]] being one such case, as the boy's biological father was killed in the first few hours of the timeline reset before he himself could be conceived. Needless to say, his mother (who still vividly remembers being pregnant with him and loving him) is heartbroken.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'' when Lewis wipes Doris from existence by [[spoiler:vowing to never invent her]]. Also happens to [[spoiler:Wilbur when the DelayedRippleEffect catches up with him, though he's brought back when Doris' BadFuture is undone]].

* ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'': Everything thrown to the Memory Dump goes through this, illustrating the fact that, although memories are usually stored within the long-term shelves (i.e. always in the back of your mind somewhere), there is only so much the brain can contain, so less important memories are periodically disposed of. [[spoiler:When Joy and Bing Bong get trapped in the Dump, Bing Bong performs a HeroicSacrifice so Joy can get out and is promptly forgotten. This not only ensures that Riley does not lose her ability to feel happy, but also flags a point in her coming-of-age story, as Bing Bong is her childhood imaginary friend and hence bound to be forgotten someday.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Lightyear}}'', Buzz discovers that Zurg [[spoiler:(or rather, his future self) is planning on going back in time to stop the ship everyone came on from being stranded on the planet in the first place. Buzz is initially on board with the idea, but then he realizes that by doing so, everyone who was born on the planet, like his friend Alisha's granddaughter, would never exist. Future Buzz doesn't care that his plan will lead to people being wiped from existence, resulting in the two fighting each other.]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* ''Film/TheForgotten'': Telly holds on to memories of her young son who died in a plane crash, and goes through therapy to help her cope. Only shortly after the story begins, her therapist tells her that her son ''never existed'', but was made up by her after a miscarriage. Telly frantically tries to prove that she's not crazy, but every single person who ought to know her son has forgotten him, and every scrap of evidence is missing or destroyed. [[spoiler:Turns out aliens took her son, along with several other children, and tried to see how much it would take for the parents to forget them. Everybody else who clued in, including several non-parents who knew the children, gets randomly flung into the sky and disappears. Telly is not; instead, the alien wipes her memory since the birth of her son. Upon realizing that she (obviously) has memories from ''before'' that birth, i.e. her pregnancy, the alien is hurled into the sky.]]

** Discussed and inverted in the plot of the film. Cable intends to travel to Deadpool's present time to [[spoiler:kill Russell Collins (a.k.a. Firefist), so that he would cease to exist in Cable's own time and not turn into a supervillain that would have killed his family]]. However, Deadpool [[spoiler:objects to this, believing that he could talk Russell out of going down that dark path, and decides to suppress his own superpowers and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice his own life]] to save Russell from the last bullet from Cable's pistol during the climatic confrontation against him. This convinces Russell not to kill anyone, therefore giving Cable's family a chance to exist in his own time. After Deadpool's [[{{Padding}} slow]], [[FaceDeathWithDignity dramatic death]], he then descends into the afterlife to join his wife, Vanessa, who then tells him that he has finally found peace in having a heart for Russell and can join her in death, but before he could settle in and accept his demise, he is suddenly [[BackFromTheDead pulled back into existence and the world of the living]] when Cable went back in time once again to retrieve Deadpool's stolen memento and uses that to [[PocketProtector block the fatal shot he fired]], allowing Deadpool to live on to appear in another planned sequel]].
** Played with in the [[TheStinger post-credits scenes]], where Deadpool [[spoiler:uses Cable's now-repaired time-traveling device]] to "clean up the timelines" by [[spoiler:killing off Weapon XI (Deadpool as he appeared in ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'') and then his actor just as he was going to play the eponymous role in the 2011 film ''Film/GreenLantern2011'']]. Also inverted when he [[spoiler:uses this same time-traveling tool to undo the deaths of Vanessa and an X-Force member]].

* ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'': The director's cut ending [[spoiler:has Evan Ret-Goned ''himself'' by going back in time and committing suicide by strangulation in the womb]]. Along with the implication that [[spoiler: he may have had several brothers and/or sisters who chose the same fate for themselves ultimately.]]

* The German film ''Reconstruction'' does this with the protagonist. After certain point in the narrative, he is erased not only from the memory of his friends and family, but also is left with no home (the house where he lived doesn't properly exist). Obviously, the story becomes highly symbolical after that happens, with the possibility of some, most or all events in his story not being real. One of the most radical possible scenarios is that [[spoiler:he doesn't even exist, and is merely a character in a story being written by the husband of the woman he loves.]] The movie plays with the idea of love itself being an ilusion.

* The entire premise of ''Film/ForgetMeNot''. Whenever the ghost kills one of the protagonist's friends, they not only die but also get completely erased from reality, so none of their other friends or family remember them (also [[spoiler:they become retro-killing ghosts themselves]]). By the end of the movie, the protagonist's family has her committed because of her constant rantings about witnessing the horrible deaths of those closest to her — people that, as far as the family knows, have never existed.
* The premise of ''Film/TheCaller'' is that Mary, in the present day, mysteriously starts receiving calls from Rose, living in the same apartment four decades earlier. Once Rose becomes jealous enough to start tracking down people close to Mary in her time and killing them, it apparently works this way: To everyone else but Mary, the victims are already long dead, which means if no one else around knew the person in question prior to that point, they won't be remembered by anyone else at all.
* ''Film/{{Timecop}}'':

** This is the ultimate fate of the BigBad, after the protagonist forces him to [[spoiler:touch [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet his past self]] with both of them disintegrating]].

* ''Film/TimeRunner'': The bad guys at one point try to kill the time travelling hero's pregnant mother before she could give birth to him. [[spoiler:They manage to kill his mother, but he saves his newborn self. However, his future version ceases to exist after he kills the bad guy since there would have been no reason for him to go back in time in the first place.]]

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': [[spoiler:When the possibility of time travel is brought up, Tony initially refuses to help. Everyone else wants to go back five years and stop half the universe from being erased, but Tony doesn't want to risk his daughter, who was born in the meantime, being erased. It soon becomes apparent that time travel doesn't work that way: Going back in time merely creates an alternate timeline, so they plan to go back in time, retrieve past copies of the Infinity Stones, and return to their time where they can use the Stones to resurrect the lost. However, while ''actually'' changing the past is impossible, ''effectively'' changing the past by using the Stones to rewind the universe is still theoretically possible. Tony therefore emphasizes several times that they are only going to resurrect everyone who died and bring them to the present. In the end it works, and Tony's daughter (along with anyone else who was born since) survives]].
* In ''Film/MenInBlack3'', [[BigBad Boris the Animal]] uses a time travel device to go back to 1969 and kill Agent K. We're shown the present-day K sitting in his apartment with a gun before vanishing. For some reason, J still remembers him, but to everyone else he's been dead for over 30 years. Even worse, a shield that was supposed to protect Earth from alien invasions was never installed, so Earth is in the process of being attacked by Boris's race. J uses another time machine to go back in time and try to protect K and get the shield installed. [[spoiler:Past K also ends up killing Past Boris instead of arresting him. Since Boris is dead by that point, we aren't shown him disappearing.]]
* Hermione disappears from her family photos when, at the start of ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', she [[spoiler:erases herself from her parents' memories]] for their safety. An interesting example in that she [[spoiler:{{Retcon}}s ''herself'' out.]]

* ''Film/TheFlash2023'': The Dark Flash is revealed to be [[spoiler:the future self of the alternate 2013 Barry Allen. When he attempts to kill Barry, the 2013 version shields him and get fatally impaled]]. This makes the Dark Flash disappear.

*** [[spoiler: [[MindScrew Of course, it helps that time travel ]][[TimeTravelTenseTrouble will never have been going to be invented.]]]]

* The Scotti from ''Literature/RangersApprentice'' believe in a demon with the power to do this. Malcolm enters his guise of Malkallam the Sorceror and threatens to summon said demon if a Scotti general doesn't spill the beans on his plan. [[spoiler:It works.]]

* At the end of Creator/MadeleineLEngle's ''Literature/ASwiftlyTiltingPlanet'' [[spoiler:Charles has succeeded in changing the past so that Madoc "El Rabioso" Branzillo, the [[EvilOverlord mad tyrant]] on the verge of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt ending the world]] is replaced with Madoc "El Zarco" Branzillo, a good man]].

* Happens to the protagonists in the book ''Superstition''. [[spoiler:They and their circle of associates test the power of belief by willing a spirit into existence; that spirit then proceeds to wipe that entire circle ''out'' of existence, and succeeds at it.]]

** And it's not limited to entire people. In the sequel ''[[Literature/ThisBookIsFullOfSpidersSeriouslyDudeDontTouchIt This Book Is Full Of Spiders]]'', [[spoiler: Amy's hand, which was amputated after the car accident in which her parents were killed, had not been amputated until the point Amy touched a Shadow Man during the climax of the novel.]] Which actually raises a lot of questions, the most obvious being how they opened the Ghost Door earlier in the novel...
*** [[spoiler: They could open the Ghost Door in John Dies at the End because that book takes place in the timeline the Shadow Men created ''after the fact'' in This Book is Full of Spiders.]]

* In ''Literature/PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus'', it is eventually revealed that [[spoiler:[[NeverWasThisUniverse our timeline is NOT the original one]]; there was a whole other history wherein Europe never sailed west to the Americas but the successors of the Aztecs sailed east and laid waste to most of the "Old World" with a religion based on conquest and human sacrifice. The people of this timeline eventually erased themselves to try to create a better world (wherein Columbus sailed west first). By the end of the book, the people of our timeline have little choice but to make a similar sacrifice, this time with a more detailed plan that provides a chance for a peaceful and mutually beneficial meeting of Europe and the Americas.]]

* ''Literature/{{Stardoc}}'': The end of ''Dream Called Time'': [[spoiler:Cherijo and Duncan]] end up in an alternate timeline where they never existed, due to [[spoiler:their [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong setting right]] [[CosmicRetcon what once went wrong]] with the [[AbusivePrecursors Jxin]]]]. ''They're'' fine—although, obviously, [[UnPerson there's no record of them]] aside from a few people's [[RippleEffectProofMemory ripple-effect-proof memories]] and the fact that they're, well, ''there''...[[spoiler:and so, as it turns out, is their daughter Marel. ''[[BellisariosMaxim Somehow]]''.]]

* In ''Literature/ThoseThatWake'', this trope happens to places; forgetting about them makes them fade from existence [[spoiler:where they are turned into pocket dimensions by Man In Suit]].

* This is the fate of all people, who are chosen to become [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividuals Functionals]] in ''Literature/RoughDraft''. The protagonist Kirill finds out about this first-hand, when he comes home to find someone else living in his apartment seemingly for years. Even his dog barks at him as if at a stranger. Some people still remember him, but a day later even they have no idea who he is. All his personal effects, such as identification and keys, quickly degrade and turn to dust. He can't even find his birth certificate in the city records. Then people start forgetting him almost as soon as they see him, and some have trouble perceiving him at all. Then he gets a text message to go to a certain address, where his finds his new home and Function, that of a customs officer in Kirill's case. To be more precise, his new home looks like a water tower in our world but is actually an InnBetweenTheWorlds with him beings the custodian. It should be noted that the effects of this trope fade away after Kirill accepts his Function, and people now perceive him as before, except his loved ones still don't remember him. Strangely enough, [[spoiler:After Kirill destroys his Function at the end of the first novel, the first thing that happens is he gets a call from his father, asking where he's been for the past several days]].

* Heavily subverted in Creator/CharlesStross's novella Palimpsest. It starts with [[SecondPersonNarration you]] tracking down and murdering your grandfather in order to make yourself separate from history so you can to enter into the title organization. Graduation into a full member of the organization involves [[spoiler:killing yourself]].

* The second ''Literature/DisneyChills'' book has this as a major plot point. Once Jamal swaps lives with Malik, his brother is erased from history, with his parents seeing Jamal as an only child and not recognizing Malik's name at all. [[spoiler:Both brothers are doomed and forgotten in the ending.]]

* In ''Literature/StarTrekCoda'', this is the ultimate fate [[spoiler:of the Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse. To wit: the Devidians are collapsing and destroying timelines and feeding themselves on the leftover energies. If this doesn't stop, they'll end up destroying the multiverse. Picard and others discover that the Novel Verse is actually the "First Splinter", the result of the events of ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', and to stop the Devidians, they must collapse this timeline, erasing it from existence but saving other, more stable timelines including the Prime Universe.]]

* In the children's book ''Miss Switch to the Rescue'', this is part of the reason the evil witch Saturna trick the children friends of good witch Miss Switch, Rupert and Amelia, into releasing the 17th century warlock Mordo from his ship-in-a-bottle prison, as she's seeking revenge on the two and Miss Switch for removing her from the position of Head Witch. Mordo was originally imprisoned for an attempt to turn a colonial town into troll slaves, with the person that was to have been his initial troll, the town's mayor, [[spoiler:is an ancestor of Amelia's. Thus, upon his escape from the bottle, he proceeds to return to the past and complete the task of turning the mayor into a troll. As trolls are unable to have children, the mayor's transformation would mean that Amelia would never be born, with her almost vanishing from existence had Miss Switch not [[DelayedRippleEffect rewound time to bring Amelia back and give her time to create a potion that would revert the mayor back to his human form]].]]
* In ''Literature/TheMissingPieceOfCharlieOReilly'', Brona is summoned whenever a child in her town wishes he or she was never born. At that point Brona gives them the opportunity to live in her limbo-like Asylum while any effects they had on other people are erased. Kids go with Brona for various reasons. Some of them want to undo a crime they committed, like Jonathon, who [[ManOnFire set his brother on fire]], or Cody, who attempted to shoplift perfume and broke the bottle, resulting in a fine for his grandma. Some of them want to be erased because they weren't what their families wanted, like a gay boy and a dyslexic girl. And some of them impulsively agree to go with Brona because of guilt over something minor, like Liam, who cheated on a book report. In most cases, people lose all memories of their vanished family members, but Liam's brother Charlie has a RippleEffectProofMemory [[spoiler:caused by Brona as an attempt at luring him into the asylum]], causing him to spend a year desperately searching for Liam while his parents and classmates think he's crazy for imagining a brother who never existed.

* ''Series/{{Alice|1976}}'': What Mel fears has happened to him in the 1983 episode, "Sweet, Erasable Mel" (after Vera accidentally erases his financial records from his new computer). Things temporarily get worse for Mel when he and Alice go to the bank and try to resolve the issue – the banker accidentally presses the "delete" key, not only double-erasing Mel but the banker's information as well! (The banker famously sings, mournfully, "I don't exist!")

*** Harrison Wells, aka Eobard Thawne, aka the Reverse-Flash, disintegrates into nothingness when [[spoiler:his ancestor, Eddie, kills himself.]] However, since he's such an important part of the timeline, history didn't change and everyone still remembers him. A younger version of him later arrives to trouble the heroes again. [[spoiler:Barry defeats the younger version of Thawne and tries to imprison him forever, but is forced to allow him to return to the future because he became a key part of Cisco/Vibe's origin story. Cisco almost vanished from existence before Thawne was released.]]
*** Thawne gets this ''again'' [[Recap/LegendsOfTomorrowS2E17Aruba in the second season finale]] of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''. The [[TheDreaded Black Flash]]-''[[TheGrimReaper literal death incarnate]]'' and sent ''by the Speed Force itself'' to remove any threat [[ClockRoaches to the timeline]]- obliterates Thawne a second time. [[spoiler:This ''still'' doesn't take, and Thawne shows up with the Earth-X Nazis for Series/CrisisOnEarthX, at which point even Thawne just handwaves his continued existence.]]
*** In the Season 2 finale, [[spoiler:Barry goes back and saves his mother from Thawne. He then watches his past self, the one who failed to save her, smile and vanish into thin air. After Barry fixes the above timeline in season 3, Diggle's daughter Sara is erased from existence, and John Diggle Jr. is the Diggle baby now, possibly setting the BadFuture of [[Series/LegendsOfTomorrow the 2030s and 2040s in motion]].]] Additionally, [[spoiler:Cisco's brother Dante has been killed by a drunk driver several months prior in the new timeline, so he fits too]]. Interestingly, it's stated that time ripples don't cross into parallel universes, even if their timelines are intertwined. This means that [[spoiler:Harry and Jesse are unaffected by Barry's changes to Earth 1's timeline, and they immediately start noticing changes upon returning]].
*** In Season 3, Savitar is revealed to be born from a StableTimeLoop. [[spoiler:Savitar murdered Barry Allen's lover Iris West. In rage and despair, Barry creates Time Remnants to help him hunt down Savitar, but one of them inevitably turns to the dark side from being rejected by Barry and his family and ''becomes'' Savitar. Barry and his friends break the loop by preventing Iris from being killed, then Iris shoots Savitar dead. Now that the conditions that made him are impossible, Savitar ceases to exist. However, everything Savitar has done up to that point remains, including his murder of H.R.]]
*** In the Season 5 finale, this turns out to be Thawne's plot: Cicada's power-dampening dagger was being used to imprison him, so he tricks Barry and the others into destroying it in the past, thus freeing him in the future. [[spoiler:When they try to stop him, Nora, Barry's future daughter, begins to disappear. All the changes she has made to the timeline mean that she doesn't exist in this form any more. Barry tries to take her into the Negative Speed Force to survive the change, but she ends up deciding that DyingAsYourself is a better option. Barry and Iris hope that they will eventually see Nora again, one way or another, but they don't realize that the reason Nora disappeared is that the Crisis where Barry is destined to disappear has moved up to next year, before they have a chance to conceive any children. However, it is to be noted that everyone who interacted with Nora seems to remember her very well.]].

*** In season 2, [[spoiler:the Legends meet Rex Tyler (AKA Hourman), the leader of the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica, who has been sent by a future version of Mick to warn the Legends about coming to 1942 (Tyler's time). However, Tyler disappears halfway through his warning. Later on, the team travels to 1942 and meets members of the JSA, while Tyler has no idea who they are. At the end of that episode, the Reverse-Flash kills him, so Tyler doesn't thwart his plans by warning the Legends (thus explaining his disappearance in the middle of his warning)]].

*** In season 4, the team finally comes up with a plan to fix the BadFuture where Zari came from. Which is great, but they're not sure what this will do to her, since she'll have little reason to join the Legends if her family wasn't murdered by a fascist state. She agrees to spend the climax in the Temporal Zone, where the timeline changes won't affect her. [[spoiler:But then she has to leave to save Nate. Everything seems fine, they share a hug... but when they separate, Zari has been replaced by her brother, and no one notices anything different]].

*** From that same season, every mention and memory of The Beast was erased from our dimension [[spoiler:by [[EldritchAbomination Jasmine]]. The Beast is still mentioned in a book from another dimension, where his information was not removed. Angelus also recalls the Beast because he was not in control of Angel when the erasure occured.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E2InvasionOfTheDinosaurs "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"]]: [[spoiler:The {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s would have Retgoned everyone outside the protection field. This would have included nearly all of humanity, as well as the entire Silurian species.]]

*** The cracks are first explained starting in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone "Flesh and Stone"]]. Time travellers can still [[RippleEffectProofMemory remember the victims]] — ''unless'' they were part of the traveller's own history, as we learn in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E9ColdBlood "Cold Blood"]] when [[spoiler:Rory is erased]]. Things get worse in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]], where [[spoiler:the TARDIS blows up, triggering the explosion that [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble caused/will cause/is causing]] the cracks and threatening to Ret-Gone the ''universe''.]] In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]], both [[spoiler:Rory and the universe]] get better.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor "The Name of the Doctor"]]: The Great Intelligence attempts a massive Ret-Gone on the Doctor himself. It almost works, but for [[spoiler:the actions of Clara Oswald]].

* The same plot as ''TNG'' episode "Remember Me", with a research facility substituted for the ship and virtual reality goggles substituted for a NegativeSpaceWedgie, appeared in the ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' episode "Games People Play". Much like the TNG episode, it comes down to the ludicrous yet creepy statement that the population of Eureka is "two". [[spoiler:It turns out that the VR goggles are part of a psychiatric treatment program. In Carter's case, it was trying to get him to accept the thought of his daughter going off to college]].

* In the season 3 finale of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', [[spoiler:this happens to Peter Bishop]]. [[spoiler:He eventually gets better]]. The trope is apparently played to full effect regarding [[spoiler:Peter's infant son Henry]], though.
** Although [[spoiler:Henry]] has an equivalent in the new timeline which results from [[spoiler:Peter's]] return, [[spoiler:his daughter Henrietta]].

* In ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'', [[spoiler:the Greatest Treasure in the Universe has the power to do this to Zangyack, which would retroactively undo all the damage they've done to the universe. However, using it would also erase the history and legacy of the Franchise/SuperSentai, so the Gokaiger ultimately decide not to use it.]]

** The season finale has [[spoiler:Hope jumping into the Malivore itself to destroy it from within. This leaves everyone at the School with no memory of her existing which shifts several of the personal dynamics. In season 2, she comes back but has to deal with the fact that no one, including her boyfriend Landon, remembers her. Even worse, Landon has moved on and is dating another girl. She knows she can't fault him for that, but it still hurts]].
** It's later explained that [[spoiler:Malivore was a {{Golem}} created by a witch, a vampire, and a werewolf to hunt other types of supernatural creatures, which were rampaging across the world. They did put in a RestrainingBolt preventing Malivore from attacking their three species. Eventually, Malivore's creators decided to end the creature, but it has grown intelligent and decided it didn't want to die, so it convinced humans to help it fight off the three supernaturals. Malivore then tried creating other golems in order to not be alone, but no attempt was successful. One such attempt became known as Ryan Clarke, although he looks human. Clarke resented his father for treating him like a failure and conspired with the humans to turn the golem into goo]].

* In ''Series/TheLostRoom'', this happens to room 10 of the Sunshine Motel as well as everything in it, in the same event that gave all of the objects inside it extraordinary powers. After the event, the room was never built and the motel owners don't remember it ever existing. It can only be accessed by using one of the objects, the key to it, to open a door (any door). [[spoiler:One of the objects is a man who was occupying the room at the time of the event. Afterwards, he came home to find that his wife no longer remembered him.]]

* ''Series/NowhereMan'' has this as the series premise. In the end Veil discovers [[spoiler:he really did never exist. He's a brainwashed federal agent]].
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S1E6TheManWhoWasNeverBorn The Man Who Was Never Born]]". [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The title says it all]]. There is a CruelTwistEnding, however. [[spoiler:It's not the man everyone assumes it will be.]]
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S6E5BreakingPoint Breaking Point]]", [[spoiler:the Andrew [=McLaren=] from 2000 ceases to exist after he kills his younger self in 1993]].
** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E15TimeToTime Time to Time]]", Satchko Watanabe, a member of the time travel agency Chrononics, ceased to exist after Lorelle Palmer altered history when she visited UC Berkeley on April 14, 1969. Lorelle caused her father Tom to miss his bus, which prevented his friend James Williams from telling him about a meeting later that night. At this meeting, he learned of Richard's plans to plant a bomb in the ROTC campus headquarters in [=McClanahan=] Hall. As a result, Tom lived, and the bomb went off the next day instead of that night. Twelve people died in the altered timeline. In the original timeline, one of them had a child who became a medical researcher and discovered the cure for AIDS, saving thousands of lives in the process. Satchko was never born as she was a descendant of one of the AIDS sufferers. The course of history is restored and Satchko returns when Lorelle decides to allow her father to die in his attempt to deactivate the bomb.

** At the end of S3 it is revealed that [[spoiler:Helen's plan is to do this with the [[MoralEventHorizon entirety of humanity]], thankfully the punishment for trying that is [[KarmicDeath death by velociraptor]].]]

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': In one episode, Clark casually says life would be so much easier to everyone [[ItsAWonderfulPlot if he had never existed]]. Only he's holding the [[MagicFromTechnology octagonal key]], which then goes on to {{Retcon}} the world without him. At first everybody is indeed happier, until he finds out that [[PresidentEvil President Luthor]] is about to destroy the world. Luckily, as Brainiac kills him with a kryptonite bullet, he [[spoiler:says farewell with Jor-El's voice, and then it all fades away. It was an illusion created by the disc, to move Clark into [[TimeTravel saving himself in the past]].]]

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E5RememberMe Remember Me]]", this happens to the entire crew of the ''Enterprise''; only Dr. Crusher remembers the missing people. This leads to a rather odd scene in which only Picard and Crusher are left on the ship, and he insists that it makes sense that [[UnnecessarilyLargeVessel they can run the ship with only two people]] -- then the computer insists after Picard vanishes that she has always run the entire ''Enterprise'' alone. Only after everyone is gone does Dr Crusher figure out that [[spoiler:she's trapped in a pocket universe based on her own thoughts]]. And it's ''shrinking''.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' two-parter "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year of Hell]]", the episode's villain, Annorax, has a weapon ship that can erase entire civilizations from history. When he originally fired the weapon at his people's greatest enemy, it restored the Krenim Empire, only to collapse due to an unforeseen plague (which also killed his wife) that only occurred because the enemy race had never introduced a vital immunity genome to the Krenim. In desperation, he fired it ''again'' to try fixing his mistake, managing to restore everyone, ''except'' for the colony in which his wife lived! This has led to his 200-year-long crusade to [[{{Necromantic}} resurrect her]] that has failed every single time (he once restored 98% of the Krenim Imperium ''except'' the colony where his wife lived), causing him to become obsessed to the point where he's conducting a one man war [[RageAgainstTheHeavens against time itself!]] The plot is resolved when [[spoiler:Janeway's [[RammingAlwaysWorks kamikaze]] attack on the weapon ship causes the weapon ship ''itself'' to be [[ResetButton erased from history]], resetting time and reuniting Annorax with his wife.]]

** In a later episode, [[spoiler:Wyatt intentionally tries to erase the man he thinks killed his wife from existence by preventing his parents from having a one-night stand. He accidentally causes the father's death, but, upon returning to the present, is shocked to find out that his wife is still dead. Someone else must have killed her]].
** Agent Christopher gives Lucy a flash drive with the information on her wife and kids, just in case something accidentally causes them to cease to exist as well. She asks Lucy to keep the flash drive in the time machine and give it to her in that eventuality. [[spoiler:The flash drives proves useful, when Rittenhouse sends agents to try to kill Christopher in 1981, which would prevent the team from being assembled in the first place. Even though the assassination fails, Christopher's kids are nearly retgonned by her accepting an ArrangedMarriage proposal, before Lucy and Jiya convince her to come out to her mother instead.]]
** This is Flynn's end goal as well - to erase [[spoiler:[[AncientConspiracy Rittenhouse]] from existence in order to bring back his wife and daughter, who were murdered by Rittenhouse agents. This is also why Rittenhouse has financed the time travel project in the first place, planning to use the time machine to cleanly remove people they don't like from reality]].
** In season 2, the inverse happens, when [[spoiler:Wyatt discovers that his wife Jessica is still alive after something Rittenhouse did. While this is great news, it's also coming at the worst time possible, as he has just started sleeping with Lucy]].

** ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Card", Linda Wolfe receives an invitation from a credit card company that specifically caters to people with a bad credit rating who have had their previous cards cancelled. When she misses the first payment, she finds that the family cat Boris has disappeared and [[RippleEffectProofMemory she is the only one to remember that he even existed]]. The following week, Linda misses the second payment and their dog Scooby disappears. Linda vows never to use the card again but she is forced to do so when her car breaks down. When she gets home that night, she discovers that her children Matt, Evan and B.J. have disappeared. The next day, Linda goes to the card company and demands to speak to the office manager Catherine Foley. While there, she sees her children, who fail to recognize her, being led into a room marked "Disbursements." Mrs. Foley explains to her that they may be returned to her if she writes them a check. Linda does so but Brian tells her that the bank called and he cancelled it. Further penalties are then made against her. Brian disappears and household items begin to vanish in front of her. [[spoiler:When she cuts the card in half, it falls to the ground. The final scene shows that Linda herself has ceased to exist and there is an empty lot where her house once stood.]]
** One of the episodes of ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'' series called "Upgrade" was about a woman who wished for a perfect family. She gets her wish, and her children are replaced by more perfect children. However, eventually she is replaced. [[spoiler:It's revealed that they live in a computer game, whose player decided to replace her characters.]]

* ''TableTopGame/MagicTheGathering'': At the end of the Tarkir story-line, [[spoiler:Sarkhan Vol]] significantly alters alters his world's history so that [[spoiler:dragons never went extinct on that world. Despite over a thousand years of altered history, most people Sarkhan knew still very much exist (albeit with heavily altered lives). However, none of them have any recollection of Sarkhan himself, as he apparently was never born in this time-line]]. Paradoxically, every event he took part in on ''other'' worlds was completely unaffected (as it includes some pretty important ones in the MTG time-line). He doesn't angst over it for long, instead seeing it as a fresh start on a better version of his world.

** [[spoiler:[[TheDragon Ryuusei Cartwright]]]] has been shown to be able to [[spoiler:transform into Omega, becoming a physical manifestation of The'Galin, and]] uncreate at will.
* In ''VideoGame/AlanWake'', Thomas Zane did this to [[spoiler:himself using the magic of Cauldron Lake, which brings the creations of artists to life]]. He was previously a very famous author, but when [[spoiler:he unintentionally gave the Dark Presence an avatar in the form of his lover Barbara Jagger by resurrecting her with his writing without explaining how (allowing it to take over her body)]], he then [[spoiler:wrote himself and everything he'd ever done out of existence, to keep the Presence contained]].
* At the end of ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', [[spoiler:Booker [=DeWitt=] commits interdimensional suicide to ensure that his evil alternate self, Father Comstock, never exists to threaten the multiverse. Because its creation was masterminded by Comstock, Colombia also ceases to exist and the events of the game never take place.]] However, TheStinger reveals that [[spoiler:Booker and Elizabeth live on in a universe where Booker [[InSpiteOfANail never gave up his daughter]], freeing them from the cycle of events that had made the lives of their other selves so hellish]]. The ''[[BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea Burial at Sea]]'' DLC reveals that [[spoiler:not all versions of Comstock were eliminated as the Booker [=DeWitt=] you play as is actually an alternate Comstock who had the Luteces send him to Rapture after accidentally killing Anna]].
* In ''Franchise/BlazBlue'', this is what happens to [[spoiler:Ragna]] at the end of ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction Central Fiction]]''. After [[spoiler:wiping out all of everyone's wishes and stopping everyone who could hurt those he loved, he wipes away everyone's memory of him as he becomes the new Amaterasu Unit]]. Only [[spoiler:Rachel]] seems to have any ability to recall him, and even that's no more than a mere remembrance of his "will to fight."
* In ''VideoGame/BrutalOrchestra'', the "Come Home" ability that [[spoiler:[[FinalBoss Heaven]]]] uses has an animation of it obliterating a fetus where its target once was. When it is done, that party member will suffer a OneHitKill and be [[NoBodyLeftBehind erased from existence]].

** In ''Chrono Cross'''s ending, Serge does this [[spoiler:to all timelines by ''interweaving'' them to create a ''perfect'' timeline, which permanently destroys the Time Devourer (at least in the form of a Schala/Lavos hybrid since Lavos' fate is unknown) and frees Schala once and for all (the reason the Schala/Lavos hybrid is gone)]].
** ''Chrono Trigger'' even gives us the victim's thoughts after she ([[spoiler:Marle]]) comes back: "Crono! It was awful...I can't recall it all...I was somewhere cold, dark...and lonely. Is that what it's like to...die?"

** This is what happens to anyone who dies while trapped in Heavenly Host Elementry. [[spoiler:This includes four of the nine main characters, and presumably all the side characters who died. The five survivors are the only ones who remember that they ever existed once they return to the real world.]]
** The sequels also deal with aftereffects of ''remembering'' someone that was wiped from reality. [[spoiler:Specifically, Naomi's huge mental breakdown over nobody remembering Seiko and Shinozaki's guilt over being responsible for introducing everyone to the ritual that ended up getting her friends killed]]. But this series plays with the trope: [[spoiler:although the Nirvana/Heavenly Host causes that the people who died inside aren't remembered, it doesn't erase their souls, it only alters the memories of the people]]. In Blood Drive, [[spoiler:the souls are freed and all the memories restored... at the cost of Ayumi (and Yoshiki, because he stayed with her)'s presence in history, as they are erased from their friends' memories and from all photos or records, but they are still alive. So while they don't exist for the world, people can still see them... They just won't remember them]].
* This is done by a character to ''themselves'' in the GoldenEnding of ''[[VideoGame/CursedTrilogy Cursed 3]]''. [[spoiler:Luna goes back to the beginning of time and destroys the crystal that would create Malus and herself, deciding that humanity deserves an existence free from the meddling and warring of gods. The end credits show history adjust to this, with events involving the gods fighting being replaced with scenes more akin to our history. However, Jennifer, Luna's reincarnation, is still born - albeit as an ordinary girl - and the last scene shows she still meets her future boyfriend Randall.]]

** In gameplay, this is implied to be the fate of Guardian Fireteams who get wiped during the Vault of Glass raid. This can happen in a number of different circumstances throughout the raid, whether it's being afflicted with the "Mark of Negation" by Fanatics and Oracles, followed by dying to the Templar's "Ritual of Negation" unless you cleanse yourself of the debuff; getting wiped by the Gorgons (special Vex Harpies found exclusively in this raid) and their "Gorgon's Gaze," where your party has ten seconds to kill them before they kill you (and they've got a ''lot'' of health, not to mention that if you kill one, all the others get a ''buff!''); or you get "Marked By The Void" while inside the portal worlds during the final segments of the raid (including the final battle against Atheon), where if you fail to complete the objective and escape before your screen goes black (or you fail to kill an Oracle that appears in Atheon's chamber if a Praetorian prevents a portal from opening), rather than the usual death screen that says "The Darkness Consumed You," you are instead told that you are ''"forever lost in the dark corners of time."'' In the Vault of Glass, you don't necessarily "die" when the Vex get you; instead, you're straight-up ''erased'' from the timeline, so you never even existed in the first place! Indeed, the "ontological weaponry" of the Vault of Glass forms a key part of the Vex's ultimate desire to reshape reality to the point where [[spoiler:''their very existence and dominion over all is a fundamental law of the universe itself,'']] essentially pulling a Ret-Gone on ''anything'' that doesn't conform to their "pattern."
* Erika [[spoiler:willingly subjects herself to this]] at the end of ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuthHackersMemory''. As the world is in the process of being reset due to the ending of the original ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth'', [[spoiler:she exempts herself from the process by sending herself to the Digital World as it happens, knowing that a new version of Erika would still develop her eventually fatal disease in that fatal car accident, but this time without an EDEN cyberspace to use as a treatment. She still lives on in the Digital World as Hudiemon, but the new timeline has no Erika ever being born in the real world, with only Keisuke, who was in the space between worlds with her until the very end, remembering she ever existed.]]

** This is a choice in the final ending of ''VideoGame/NieR'' where [[spoiler:the eponymous main character can sacrifice himself to save Kaine. The downside? He completely erases himself and all memories of himself from existence. Kinda a DownerEnding considering Kaine was willing to sacrifice herself and Nier's sister/daughter ([[AmericanKirbyIsHardcore depending on version]]), whose cure/rescue was the driving focus of the game, is now brother/fatherless, but at least she doesn't know it. Oh, and when the game says all trace of your existence will be erased, it means it. Choosing to sacrifice yourself will ''erase your save file'', making it as if you never even played the game in the first place. Also, if you then try to create a new save file with the same name as the erased one, ''the game won't let you'']].
** Happens again in the final ending of ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', where [[spoiler:in order to EarnYourHappyEnding, you must complete a nigh-impossible BulletHell shooting section. After inevitably getting your ass kicked multiple times, if you are connected to the internet, you will be offered help from other players, which makes the section trivially easy. Afterwards you are told that the only reason those players were able to help you was because they erased their save file in order to do so. You are then given the choice to erase your own save file in order to help someone else, and told that [[WhatYouAreInTheDark nobody will ever know if you choose not to]]]].

** In ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse2'', [[spoiler:after Towa loses Mira and Bardock, she reveals that she captured and brainwashed the hero from the original ''Xenoverse''. However, when you free him, she time travels to the beginning of the original ''Xenoverse'' and kills Shenron, stopping the hero from being summoned. When he's removed from the timeline, the others forget about him until they start thinking harder about what's missing. The hero of this game is able to arrive in the nick of time and end up inspiring Trunks into summoning the hero.]]
* Happens with [[spoiler:the Guardians/Celestrians]] of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' after [[spoiler:Celestia ascends them all for accomplishing the purpose they were created for. All the Guardian statues in the world lose their inscriptions, and everyone (except the ghosts) treat their presence as a minor mystery.]]

** The defeat of Chaos (aka [[spoiler:Garland]]) in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' brings about the end of the StableTimeLoop; as a result, [[spoiler:nobody remembers him or his defeat at the hands of the Light Warriors]]. Additionally, nobody remembers [[spoiler:the Light Warriors]] either, nor any of their exploits. [[spoiler:Including the Light Warriors themselves.]]
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'':

*** This includes [[spoiler:Alyssa Zaidelle, who should have died in the Purge, but is erased as a result of the protagonists fixing the paradoxes]].
*** It is eventually revealed by Lightning and Yeul that [[spoiler:Etro's intervention at the end of the previous game (i.e. freeing everyone from crystal stasis)]] caused the paradoxes, and hence, all of the anomalies and disappearances.
** The idea gets revisited in a subversion with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. In the chapter "The End of an Era", the player characters who are fighting to end the war against TheEmpire encounter Bahamut and can only watch as the elder primal rains destruction across the land. Louisoix saves the world's only hope, the player characters, [[spoiler:by sending them several years into the future while he performs a HeroicSacrifice to stop Bahamut]]. Once ''A Realm Reborn'' came to be (patch 2.0), everyone forgets who the warriors that fought Bahamut were and can only remember them by a figure shrouded in light, dubbing them the Warriors of Light. While said warriors still exist, no one can remember them. This is taken a step further if a Legacy player completes the main storyline where [[spoiler:everyone remembers that the player is indeed the Warrior of Light.]] ''Endwalker'' reveals that this memory-alteration is a side-effect of the huge amounts of aether disruption that happened when Bahamut started came down and started raising hells, as a similar method (including its reversibility under the right circumstances) is used by the Forum of Sharalayan.

** This is the ultimate fate of [[spoiler:Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. As Rukkhadevata has become corrupted by [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow the forbidden knowledge plaguing the world]], Nahida is forced to erase every trace of Rukkhadevata's memory from Irminsul to eradicate the forbidden knowledge for good so the tree could finally start healing. In the aftermath, everyone starts attributing Rukkhadevata's deeds to Nahida instead, with the belief that Sumeru has only ever had one Archon and Rukkhadevata's death 500 years ago being recontextualized as Nahida having expended all of her power to save the land from corruption and losing her memories due to it. The effects are so complete that any mention of Rukkhadevata is completely removed from [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou any piece of in-game lore, from item descriptions, to books to even Nahida's own character stories]]. Though the Traveler still remembers her due to being not from Teyvat and thus not connected to Irminsul, the only indication Rukkhadevata ever existed at all is [[ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy the undefineable feelings of sadness and loss Nahida still feels for having to erase her despite having no other memory of her]], since Irminsul had no way to effectively fill those gaps.]]
** [[spoiler:Scaramouche]] attempts this in the ''Inversion of Genesis'' interlude story. [[spoiler: After learning the truth about Dottore's manipulation, Scaramouche makes a desperate attempt to change the past by erasing his own existence. The Traveler is the only one that remembers him, and checking around reveals that the past did not actually change, only how people remembered them. The Tatarasuna Incident and the fall of the Raiden Gokaden still occurred, but the records simply have no mention of the involvement of the "Eccentric". While investigating the changes, the Traveler learns from Nahida that it is possible to save erased information by concealing it within a fairytale. This allows an amnesiac Scaramouche, now a nameless ParadoxPerson, to reclaim his memories and begin a new life as the Wanderer. Realizing the advantage of his situation, he swears to take revenge against the Fatui while no one remembers that he is a loose end that needed to be dealt with]].
* S(h)innosuke's bad ending in ''VideoGame/GigaWing'' has [[spoiler:his name "mysteriously vanish from existence, never to be recorded in history."]]

* In ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'', this is the fate of anyone who wanders into The Flux (more formally, phenomenon fluctuation sectors), though it is unclear how people figured this out. It's used for a NonStandardGameOver. [[spoiler:Also the Overseers' retaliation for Kira hacking their computer, though Yuri manages to reverse it in the ending.]]

** Subverted in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]]''. In the game's climax, [[spoiler:Xion is absorbed by Roxas. As she was created from the memories of main character Sora, there was nothing left for anyone to remember her with after she's gone]]. The Ret-Gone appears to be played straight, but in the cell phone game ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded coded]]'', [[spoiler:it is revealed through a conversation between Data Sora and Data Roxas that the real Roxas still feels the pain of losing Xion, even if he doesn't remember her. Interestingly, this pain is also felt by Data Sora, who states that even if he doesn't know the source of his turmoil, he's still resolved to do his best to fix it.]] Of course, it is also possible that [[spoiler:the database entry where Xion learned about her past is still intact]].
** In ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]]'', [[spoiler:we learn Xion isn't entirely gone yet. She appears (and Ventus and Roxas too) when Riku enters Sora's heart]]. ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' then puts it to rest with [[spoiler:Xion returning as one of Master Xehanort's Thirteen Seekers of Darkness to replace their failure to make Sora that in ''3D''. While Xion has been erased from everyone's memories, the Seekers rediscovered her from the physical research notes her creator [[EvilGenius Vexen]] had kept together on her. From there, it was just a matter of preparing a new Replica body for her heart and plucking it from the timestream like the other Seekers. Lea is also revealed to subconsciously still remember Xion from his time as Axel, plus Xion was such an integral part of his memories that he ''knew'' something was up with the holes in the memories she should be in]].
** Occurs with [[spoiler:Sora]] during the year between ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': [[spoiler:while Sora is sleeping and Naminé is reconstructing his memories, everyone who knew him (aside from Riku, Mickey, and, to a slightly lesser degree, Kairi[[note]]as she does forget his name[[/note]]) forgets that he existed until he awakens again]].

** This is what ultimately happens to [[spoiler:Ash Crimson]] at the end of the Tales of Ash [[StoryArc arc]] spanning from ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2003 2003]]'' to ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIII XIII]]'', though it was not so much a matter of planning as it was a last-ditch desperate attempt to stop [[spoiler:Saiki, head of Those From the Past and his {{Time Travel}}ling ancestor, from going back in time and trying to steal the Sacred Treasures that kept Orochi's seal in place after [[GrandTheftMe hijacking Ash's body]]]]. It was [[spoiler:[[HeroicWillpower Ash's last shred of free will]] that kept Saiki stuck in the present]] and thus prevented [[spoiler:Ash himself]] from even being born, erasing both from the ''KOF'' continuity. All that remains of [[spoiler:Ash]] is their [[spoiler:black headband]], [[TragicKeepsake kept by]] [[spoiler:Ash's OnlyFriend [[TheNotLoveInterest Elisabeth]]]].
** [[spoiler:Subverted as of ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIV XIV]]'', where [[BigBad Verse]]'s defeat brings Ash BackFromTheDead... along with all the other dead characters]].
* In ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'', [[spoiler:In the GoldenEnding, Angela was set to suffer this as a result of her attempts to revive everybody killed in the Library. [[AvertedTrope It's averted, though,]] because Roland saves her at the last second]].

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', if you die anywhere in the game and choose not to continue the screen displays: '''Time Paradox'''. [[spoiler:Volgin won, used Shagohod]], and all hell broke loose. More importantly, Solid, Liquid and Solidus are now Ret-Goned, with all the consequences it brings. [[NightmareFuel Think on it]] [[FridgeHorror for a second]]. The same thing happens if players kill Ocelot, with Col. Roy Campbell [[WhatTheHellHero chewing you out from the future for messing up history and creating a time paradox]].
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' revisit this trope. If Big Boss dies in the the former, "Time Paradox" appears in small text on the Game Over screen. In the latter, the Game Over screen will read "Time Paradox" if the player allows Ishmael, Kaz, Huey, Eli, or Ocelot to die. [[spoiler:In the case of Ishmael and Eli: Ishmael is the real Big Boss, while Eli would grow up to become Liquid Snake.]]

** The story mode features time travel, so this comes into play. Kano threatens the life of Past Johnny Cage in a hostage situation, threatening that if Cage dies in the past, his future daughter, Cassie Cage - whose mother, Sonya Blade, is currently holding a gun to Past Kano's head - will die too. Sonya proceeds to [[spoiler:exploit his threat, [[EyeScream shooting Kano's past self in the eye]] and causing his future self to blow away into dust.]]
** Jacqui [[spoiler:willingly does this to herself]] in her Arcade Mode ending, where after beating Kronika [[spoiler:she alters the timeline so that her father never became a Revenant at the cost of never meeting his wife (who he met while recuperating from the trauma), thus never fathering Jacqui]].
* In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity Gates to Infinity]]'', [[spoiler:it's claimed that a law of nature will force all memories of the player to disappear when he leaves the Pokémon world. Everyone else decides [[ScrewDestiny that's a stupid law]] and force themselves to remember anyway]].

* The ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia: Sands of Time'' trilogy has this on a rather grand scale: The climax of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' has the Prince reseal the Sands, which sends him back before they were released in the first place and lets him defeat the Vizier who started the whole affair. The [[CuttingOffTheBranches canon ending]] for ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin'' has [[spoiler:the Prince prevent the Sands from being made in the first place]], and so in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'' the Vizier is alive, and he takes over Farah's country before marching on Persia as part of his plan to [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble re-create the Sands in the first place...]]
* In ''VideoGame/PromDreams'', this happens to [[spoiler:each of the protagonist's love interests as they are killed off, one by one, at the end of each "loop" of the game. In each following loop, save for the final one, the girl previously killed will cease to exist before Kyle recovers his memories of them]].

** The entire timeline that spiraled into the catastrophic events of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'' was wiped out of existence by the actions of Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV: [[spoiler:first, he smashed his successor's [[VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy plan]] to introduce future tech into Japan in the Taisho era to ensure global dominance by the Japanese. Later, destroying the despair god, [[VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon Shinado]]'s, attempt to subsume the Capital into despair confirmed the timeline was no longer extant]]. Despite this, [[AmbiguouslyHuman Steven]] is still running around...

*** The first is the disappearance of [[spoiler:the Protagonist, during the first regression of the world]], who performed a HeroicSacrifice to keep Al Saiduq safe. Played with, as every party member still remembered him [[spoiler:and they eventually fell to Arcturus except for Yamato and Al Saiduq]]. And this is attempted ''again'' on him for most of the Triangulum Arc, [[spoiler:meaning that the Triangulum are attempting to erase the protagonist's data from the Akashic Record and cause him to cease to exist '''at any moment'''. These attempts stop after Arcturus is defeated]].
*** The other disappearance goes to Yamato Hotsuin. As they remember their previous world, everyone remembers that Yamato Hotsuin existed, but he doesn't seem to exist in ''this'' world and has been replaced by Miyako Hotsuin. And she claims that no Yamato was ever part of the Hotsuin clan. [[spoiler:Yamato does exist, but he's willingly remaining in the Akashic Stratum, to continuously protect the protagonist's data from getting corrupted and deleted. This happened during the second regression of the world and Carnopus, noticing the empty spot of 'Yamato Hotsuin' replaced it by creating Miyako.]]
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': [[spoiler:When BigBad Yaldabaoth starts overlaying his MentalWorld onto reality, the Phantom Thieves start disappearing since nobody believes that they exist, as the other world runs on ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, which means that they really don't exist. The Thieves only barely manage to hang onto existence thanks to Yuki and his website.]]

* Used for a ''non''-evil or horrible effect in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}} 2'': As a side effect of defeating the Big Bad, [[spoiler:Ryuko Tagawa never existed, therefore Abe Soji is no longer wanted for her murder (he was innocent anyway). The picture of Abe and Ryuko now shows only Abe, and the newspaper clipping of the murder has changed and now reports Ikuko's mother killing her father]].

* At first, ''VideoGame/SuikodenTierkreis'' appears to be about things coming into existence rather than vanishing from it--but when they appear, the things that were previously there stop being there. This becomes rather important when [[spoiler:the entire country of Janam is replaced by an uninhabited desert]].

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2'', the party's goal is to erase the goddess Fortuna and her priestess Elraine from time itself. [[spoiler:Reala and Judas]], who exist because of Fortuna, are fully aware that doing this will cause the same thing to happen to them. ([[spoiler:[[TheAtoner Judas]], in fact, wants it to happen for most of the game]]). [[spoiler:Reala's bond with Kyle later saves her from unexisting, while Judas's ultimate fate is left ambiguous.]]

* Partway through ''Terminator 3: The Redemption'', [[spoiler:the T-850 (the Terminator [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger Arnie]] played) gets thrown into a prototype time machine in the present and thrown into the future, where, without his help, John Conner and Katherine Brewster are dead, thus, the human resistance is never formed to fight against Skynet, ergo, humanity is extinct.]]
* The ending of ''VideoGame/TheThirdBirthday'' has [[spoiler:Eve killing Aya after they switch bodies so that the Twisted and High Ones were never created in the first place, thus canceling out the entire story that took place in the game. Everyone that had died previously are alive and well in the altered timeline. Aya's HeroicSacrifice causes her to be erased from the new timeline, which has everyone forgetting about her while Eve is the only one who remembers her]].

** This happens to ''an entire city'' in the backstory to the game. [[spoiler:When the Inversion of Shinjuku took place, it was completely erased from existence, with the only ones ever remembering Shinjuku being those who have been to the UG before its Inversion.]]
** When [[spoiler:Hazuki]] intervenes in the game's final day, [[spoiler:he brings Shibuya back to normal before it too is Inverted, but Rindo is the only one to survive with nobody else remembering any of the game's participants. When Rindo is given one more chance to make things right, it turns out this stuck for [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan Kubo]] -- while everyone ''else'' was brought back by Hazuki, nobody can remember Kubo except for Rindo, and even then it's only vague recollections.]]

* Naturally as a time travel story, this sort of thing was bound to happen in ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate''. In the True End route, [[spoiler:Suzuha, her mission complete, creates a timeline where Daru theoretically never has her]], therefore Ret-Goning her out of existence. And there's only a ''vague'' inference that ''anyone'' will ''ever'' remember she existed aside from Kyouma. Naturally, her fans [[FanonDiscontinuity like to state her ending as the best end.]]
** The anime adaptation's [[spoiler:exclusive 25th episode OVA shows, however, that Daru will eventually meet up with Suzuha's mother and she'll be born 7 years later in 2017. Her disappearance in the series is because only that particular version of her (a ShellShockedVeteran of WorldWarIII) never comes to be]].

* ''VisualNovel/DateALiveRinneUtopia'' has the eponymous character herself. Because she doesn't exist in the [[Literature/DateALive original novels]], fans know she'd have to disappear so as not to muck up the continuity. [[spoiler:[[TearJerker And she did get herself hit with this trope]] causing Shido to [[SkywardScream cry his heart out.]] This is the ''only'' time he even openly cries his heart out.]]
* Sola from ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}} Academy'' experiences a drawn-out version of this in her route. She suffers from “distortions”, episodes where parts of her body will randomly (and painfully) fade out of existence. The people who know her lose some of their memories of her whenever a distortion occurs: if she were to disappear completely, they would forget her entirely and it would be like she never existed. The plot of her route involves figuring out why this is happening and finding a way to prevent it.
** In ''Sunrider Liberation Day''’s [RE]turn mode, this is almost inevitable. [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong Kayto has been sent back in time to prevent]] [[WhamEpisode a horrible incident]] [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong that happened in the main storyline from taking place]], and if he succeeds the resulting paradox will erase him from existence. Not counting the bad endings where he dies, exactly three of [RE]turn’s [[MultipleEndings eighteen endings]] do not have Kayto getting erased.
* ''VisualNovel/{{SOON}}'': One of Atlas' less-than-noble motivations to build a time machine is to get rid of their academic rival, Dr Fang, by preventing her parents from getting together. Atlas can actually accomplish this by time traveling to Fang's parents first meeting and revealing that [[spoiler:Mr. Fang is a Billy Ray Cyrus fan. [[TakeThat Fang's mother is horrified and leaves in a hurry]].]]
* A particularly horrifying example happens to [[spoiler:Sayori]] in ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' after being [[spoiler:DrivenToSuicide at the end of Act 1. Initially the game tries to render her interactions but they all come out as broken sprites and garbage text, before the game resets and treats her as if she never existed.]] Though the player may easily not notice it, [[spoiler:this correlates with her file being gone from the "Characters" folder. The same sort of thing can also happen to other characters if their files are removed and the game is restarted. ItMakesSenseInContext, but to explain why would spoil the whole plot even more than this.]]
* ''VisualNovel/AmnesiaMemories'' has this performed on Ukyo for his Normal Ending, and out of his own volition. In this ending, the heroine survives, but any knowledge of Ukyo's existence is erased... but only for ''her''. During the ending's party at the café, the manager actually asks her about Ukyo, who had been a regular customer, and wondering where he's gone off to. The heroine herself doesn't know who he's talking about.

* In the ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'' video "The Weegee Uprising", Mario's descendant, New Super Duper Mario Plus Ultra, [[spoiler: is erased from time due to the BadFuture where the Weegee Dolls took over being undone]].

* In ''Webcomic/ScaryGoRound'', Erin Winters was sucked through a portal to Hell as an unintended result of her sister Shelley saving the universe. She was confident that Shelley would rescue her, but [[http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20070727 Bob Crowley explained]] that she was "no longer part of the universe we knew" and everyone would soon forget her. This state of affairs persisted even after she became ruler of Hell and returned to the mortal world, with Erin eventually meeting and telling her story to an old boyfriend; she mentioned that she hadn't tried contacting her family, as it would be too painful. Indeed, when she did meet Shelley face to face soon after, the latter didn't recognize her at all... [[spoiler:until after Tim accidentally opened ''another'' portal to Hell and Erin had to trade her soul for boyfriend Eustace's life, which somehow let Shelley remember and recognize her dear sister right through the latter's "queen of Hell" persona.]]

* In ''Webcomic/TRULifeAdventures'', Scarlett places Jack in a coma-like stasis so he won't [[spoiler: exist in the new timeline she's constructing]]''. It works.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' this happens to Dave Davenport's [[spoiler:smoking habit]]. In the Director's Cut re-run of the strip, the comments section ran with this as a joke for a while, insisting that [[spoiler:'Dave Davenport has never smoked']]!

** And in a WhamEpisode, a non-lethal version of this occurs. Because of Kin #80, [[spoiler: the bonding between Minmax and our Kin was completely undone when #80 tossed a MementoMacguffin into one of the holes, causing Kin to forget why she trusted Minmax to begin with]].

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', the whole point of the Scratch is to reset the entire universe and modify the lives of the players[[spoiler:- by switching them with their ancestors-]] to better prepare them for the game. However, in both canonical instances of the Scratch, the players who initiated it managed to escape its Ret-Goning influence.

* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', we find out this is the reason he can't reveal his own first name: [[spoiler: His name was used as a sacrifice to seal a dangerous [[ZombiePirateNinja Ghost Wizard]]. Doc was the only person on Earth who still remembers it (later joined by his clone "Old [=McNinja=]"). If either of them reveals the name in any way, the seal is broken and the Ghost Wizard will be free.]]

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3930 SCP-3930]] is a VoidBetweenTheWorlds lacking shape, dimension, or any potential quality that could be attributed to it. Because of [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm the human mind's tendency to create patterns where there are none]], [[YourMindMakesItReal anyone who enters it believes they're in a lush forest in the Russian wilderness]], not realizing that it doesn't exist (and now, neither do they). [[spoiler: The more people know of this void and subconsciously overwrite it with their own patterns, the more lingering remnants of consciousness within it there are. If there's too much of these thoughts together, too many of these inventions of the mind piling up at the edge of nothingness, they start to merge into one thing, it becomes complex, gains sentience, and realizes what it actually is. It exists now, and it would ''very much like'' to go back to not existing. That little thing is what's known as a [[EldritchAbomination Pattern Screamer]], because it's born from seeing nonexistent patterns, and it screams in hatred of thought that brought it to be. The only way to erase it is to erase the inventions that made it happen; the only way to make ''that'' happen is to send the ones who thought them into this nothingness, so they'll stop existing. The threshold is around ten people; any more than that knowing of this void, and the screaming starts.]]

* In the ''WebOriginal/{{Paradise}}'' setting, humans are randomly, permanently changed into {{Funny Animal}}s by causes unknown—and some are [[GenderBender gender-switched]] at the same time. As the [[WeirdnessCensor "Reality Distortion Field"]] that keeps these changes InvisibleToNormals begins to wind down, gender-bent Changed discover all extant documentation about themselves is [[RetCon retconned]] as reality itself is edited to reflect their new gender. Their driver's licenses and other identification have newly-feminine names, and all photos all the way back to when they were babies will show a girl instead of a boy (or vice versa). Hence, as far as the world is concerned, the character's original gender is Ret-Goned--records will show that the former "he" has always been a "she" (or vice versa). (Memories of those who knew them before are not affected, however. Also, while people who already know them will continue to see them as their original gender, strangers they meet will see them as the new one.)

* One of the extradimensional artifacts that appears in ''Literature/{{Anachronauts}}'' is Oblivion, a large and ornately-decorated revolver which [[BottomlessMagazines never runs out of bullets]] and does this to anything it shoots. It's lampshaded several times in the text that its "edits" are relatively clumsy, as these things go; it's a freakin' HandCannon, it doesn't do "subtle". The full NightmareFuel potential of such a weapon comes up a couple of times, such as when [[spoiler:Carrie realizes why the current owner has no parents (an accident; it's implied the thing is more than a little cursed)]], and when [[spoiler:he brings it to school and opens fire in ''an empty library.'' Eventually disposed of by having Carrie literally invoke [[SuperSpeed "faster than a speeding bullet"]] to make it shoot ''itself'', undoing all of its previous edits in a spectacular (and again, very unsubtle) flurry of people and things appearing out of thin air.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Curveball}}'', the entire island of [[spoiler:Esperanza]] was erased from history. This was the only way to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong undo something even worse]].
* In the {{Creepypasta}} "Disappear Hole" by Creator/{{Slimebeast}}, while anything that falls into the titular hole is not ''physically'' erased from existence, it is erased from everyone's memories. The three boys in the story discover this when they decide to drop a flashlight into the hole to see how deep it is, but then realize they didn't bring one. Then they look back down into the hole and see a flashlight falling down it, and conclude that they actually ''did'' bring one and dropped it in, but immediately forgot it existed after doing so. Eventually, they decide to head home for the night, only to be very confused when [[spoiler:they return to the spot where they parked their bikes [[WhamLine and find]] ''[[WhamLine four of them]]'' [[WhamLine parked there]]]].

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'' dealt with a crazed alien enthusiast finding a way to time-travel and going back to send the founding members of the eponymous organization to a dimensional limbo. A photo displaying the meeting between the founders and a group of aliens has each human disappearing one by one, and everyone instantly forgets them except Jay, who's gained RippleEffectProofMemory via some Alien Phlebotinum which is also slowly killing him. Additionally, all the founders' contributions disappear as well, such as all the medical devices invented by Agent D. By the time only K is left, [=MiB=] is reduced to a tiny organization operating out of the back of a store. [[spoiler:Jay manages to undo everything, including his own Phlebotinum exposure.]]

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]], [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] and [[AvertedTrope averted]] in the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' season 4 episode "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E11AWorldBetweenWorlds A World Between Worlds]]". When Ezra Bridger [[spoiler:gains access to the titular realm inside the Jedi temple on Lothal]], he possibly saves Ahsoka from this by discovering a time portal that shows what happened immediately after he managed to [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E20TwilightOfTheApprenticePartII escape the collapsing Sith Temple on Malachor a few years prior, with she and Vader trapped inside]]. Seeing that [[spoiler:Vader was winning the duel and had just enough time to strike her down before the Temple collapsed, Ezra decides to pull her into the World Between Worlds, preventing her from being killed so that she would have a chance to exist in his current time]]. After telling her how much he missed her and explaining what happened while she was gone, Ezra then realizes that he has the power to "go back and change things" here and wishes to use it to [[spoiler:undo the HeroicSacrifice of his master, Kanan]]. However, Ahsoka stops Ezra from doing that and urges him to consider the fact that if he were to [[spoiler:pull Kanan away from the explosion that he was trying to hold off in his final moments, it would end up consuming Ezra and his fellow rebels instead, which would mean that he would not have been alive by the time he got into the World Between Worlds]].
* Happens to minor character Molly Collins from ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''[[note]]She last appeared in person in "The Fight" in Season 1 and then only appeared in photos in "The Words", "The Sidekick" and "The Joy" in the following two seasons before disappearing completely[[/note]]. "The Void" reveals that the world deemed her one of its mistakes for being too boring and sent her to the titular dimension. Gumball, Darwin and Mr. Small rescue her at the end of the episode. "The Nobody" reveals that the same kind of thing happened to [[spoiler: Rob, but the [[CerebusRetcon results]] [[BodyHorror aren't]] [[CreateYourOwnVillain quite]] [[BigBad the same]]]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', the Shredder's plan to destroy TheMultiverse resulted in several characters being erased from existence, literally, as the plot came to fruition, including April and Casey. Ironically, it happened to [[TheDragon Hun]] just as the Turtles convinced him [[MookFaceTurn to turn against the Shredder.]] Fortunately, April and Casey were restored once the plan was stopped, and presumably, everyone else was.
* In the final season of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', [[spoiler:Jack's fiance Ashi ceases to exist after he travels back to his time and defeats her father Aku]]. This is only a mild case as [[RippleEffectProofMemory he still possesses memories of her]] as indicated by his smile when he sees the ladybug. This is also definitely the case with [[spoiler:Future Aku, since his erasure is what erases Ashi, as well as the evil cult that worshipped him]].
** [[spoiler:Not only her, the entire future timeline and everyone and everything in it ceases to exist]] as it was a distorted reality created by the act of Aku banishing Jack into the future. Jack returning to the past [[spoiler: resets this distortion and the timeline essentially proceeds as it would have had Jack never travelled to the future, even though his memories and experience remain.]]
** All of Jack's friends from future [[spoiler:would have been Ret-Goned along with Ashi as killing Aku means that he couldn't kill or displace human populations for the next several millennia, nor be able to invite various alien races to Earth, thus negating them from being born. Even if they still exist under a happier future, none of them will remember ever meeting Jack; even though he's a legendary hero now, all those events he took part in never happened. The only one who'll remember these events is Jack himself, unless he somehow decides to chronicle his adventures.]] There is a silver lining to this: they would never have had to experience the living hell that was Aku.

** This is the ultimate fate of [[spoiler:Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. Having become so corrupted by the forbidden knowledge plaguing the world, Nahida is forced to erase every trace of her memory from Irminsul to eradicate the forbidden knolwedge for good so the tree could finally start healing. In the aftermath, everyone starts attributing Rukkhadevata's deeds to Nahida instead, with the belief that Sumeru has only ever had one Archon and Rukkhadevata's death 500 years ago being recontextualized as Nahida having expended all of her power to save the land from corruption and losing her memories due to it. The effects are so complete that any mention of Rukkhadevata is completely removed from any piece of in-game lore, from items descriptions, to books to even Nahida's own character stories. Though the Traveler still remembers her due to being not from Teyvat and thus not connected to Irminsul, the only indication Rukkhadevata ever existed at all is the undefineable feelings of sadness and loss Nahida still feels for having to erase her despite having no other memory of her, since Irminsul had no way to effectively fill those gaps.]]

* In ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' #9, a hero team calling themselves the Avengers formed in the 50s, rather than the 60s as is canon in the main MarvelUniverse. In ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'', Wasp and Captain Marvel (from the present and future Avengers teams, respectively) ''meet'' these Avengers, much to their confusion, as they know damn well the team never existed in their timeline, and this is supposed to still ''be'' their timeline. The discrepancy is explained by the arrival of Immortus, who wipes out the standing section of time (nearly taking Marvel and Wasp with it) in order to prevent a confrontation between Earth and the Skrull Empire, who had one of its agents impersonating Not-Yet-President Nixon. The now nonexistent Avengers team was later resurrected and reinstated in their place in the 50s as a ''different'' team, known as the G-Men, who later became the ComicBook/AgentsOfAtlas. Phew.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has the hidden character W. D. Gaster, an exploration of the implications of [[DummiedOut cut content]]. [[spoiler:Gaster was the previous Royal Scientist, but an experiment gone wrong saw him shattered across time and space. Anyone who knew him well was subjected to the same fate (except Sans, who is implied to be connected to him), including a greyed-out monster named Goner Kid who muses about being wiped from everyone else's memories and left to [[AndIMustScream look on forever as]] [[ItsAWonderfulPlot the world carries on like they (or whomever they have in mind) never existed]].]]

* The Silver Age ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' story "Crisis on Earth-A" had Johnny Thunder become curious on whether he has a counterpart on Earth-One and ask his Thunderbolt to take him to him. Said Earth-One counterpart turns out to be a crook and proceeds to hijack the Thunderbolt and use his wishes to alter reality in his favor. This included wiping the Justice League out of existence by having the Thunderbolt go back in time and interfere with their individual origins (e.g. preventing Krypton from undergoing the disaster that destroyed it and resulted in Superman being sent to Earth, saving Green Lantern Corpsman Abin Sur's life so he wouldn't give his power ring to Hal Jordan, discouraging Bruce Wayne from becoming a crimefighter by beating up Batman during [[ComicBook/DetectiveComicsNumber27 his first case]], interfering with Dr. Erdel's experiment so J'onn J'onzz would remain on Mars) and later having some of his accomplices take Superman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, the Atom, the Flash and Green Lantern's places in the timeline. It takes the efforts of the Justice Society and a defiant Thunderbolt to persuade Earth-One Johnny Thunder into surrendering and undoing his actions.

* The Silver Age ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' story "Crisis on Earth-A" had Johnny Thunder become curious on whether he has a counterpart on Earth-One and ask his Thunderbolt to take him to him. Said Earth-One counterpart turns out to be a crook and proceeds to hijack the Thunderbolt and use his wishes to alter reality in his favor. This included wiping the Justice League out of existence by having the Thunderbolt go back in time and interfere with their individual origins (e.g. preventing Krypton from undergoing the disaster that destroyed it and resulted in Superman being sent to Earth, saving Green Lantern Corpsman Abin Sur's life so he wouldn't give his power ring to Hal Jordan, discouraging Bruce Wayne from becoming a crimefighter by beating up Batman during [[ComicBook/DetectiveComicsNumber27 his first case]], interfering with Dr. Erdel's experiment so J'onn J'onzz would remain on Mars).