History Main / RetGone

* In ''Manhua/InfinityGame'' this happens when 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.

* ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'': The immortal Hamed Ali was literally erased from existence. His lines became sketchier, he lost his color, he became nothing more than rough pencil lines and design notes, and disappeared into nothing at all.

** When Hazuki intervenes in the game's final day, 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.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/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.

* In the final season of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', 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 Future Aku, since his erasure is what erases Ashi, as well as the evil cult that worshipped him.

* 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, [[AlternateHistory 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.

** After ''+Superman: Reborn'', there's an issue of Clark recounting his past, from the beginning of his career as Superman to his current life. One of the things he remembers is his death and the Supermen who came after. Missing is Kon-El, Superboy (and all non-Kryptonian Supergirls). Superman ''does'' say he feels like something's missing. Kon-El (Conner) was definitely erased as his best friend (Tim Drake) had no clue who he is, but upon hearing his name felt like he was missing someone. Tim and Stephanie Brown set off to figure out what happened to the timeline, and found Kon had been shuffled off to [[ComicBook/AmethystPrincessOfGemworld Gemworld]] and therefore spared from the mess that created the New 52 but stranded from the main universe.

* This was the origin of Waverider. In a dark future ruled by a tyrant named Monarch, scientist Matthew Ryder time-traveled to the past to defeat him, suffering an accident that turned him into the time-travelling superhero. Waverider ultimately prevented Monarch from conquering the world, but in doing so history was altered, so that Matt Ryder never went to the past and never became Waverider. However Waverider still existed, and eventually joined forces with the Matt Ryder of the new timeline to form the [[TimePolice Linear Men]].
* The ''entirety'' of the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship from the New 52 was Retgonned when the pre-New 52 Superman and New 52 Superman fused together in ''ComicBook/SupermanReborn'', with the resulting combined timeline basically being pre-New 52 Superman but with [=NuSupes=]' dead parents, briefly using his armoured costume and some clearing up of continuity surrounding his son's birth. This new, whole Superman has ''never'' dated Wonder Woman, and is all but said to have only ever dated Lois Lane.
* From the aftermath of ''Superman Reborn'', there's an issue of Clark recounting his past, from the beginning of his career as Superman to his current life. One of the things he remembers is his death and the Supermen who came after. Missing is [[ComicBook/Superboy1994 Kon-El]], Superboy. Superman ''does'' say he feels like something's missing.
** Kon-El (Conner) has definitely been erased as the new iteration of his best friend ([[ComicBook/Robin1993 Tim Drake]]) has no clue who he is, but upon hearing his name feels like he's missing someone. Tim and Stephanie have set off to figure out what's happened to the timeline due to Tim realizing someone named Conner has no longer ever existed. He is found to have been shuffled off to [[ComicBook/AmethystPrincessOfGemworld Gemworld]] and therefore spared from the mess that created the New 52 but stranded from the main universe and brought back into continuity for ''ComicBook/YoungJustice2019''.
* The ''Hypertension'' storyline in Superboy (the Kon-El version)'s first series had this happen to Director Westfield. Contact with [[{{Phlebotinum}} Hyperium]], a substance that allows travel through Hypertime, erased him ''and'' every single one of his counterparts from the multiverse. Only the memory of him remained, apparently enough to allow for new versions of Westfield to appear in future iterations of the multiverse.

* Franchise/TheWorldOfDarkness:

* In ''Literature/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', 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.]]

* Used for a ''non''-evil or horrible effect in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}} 2'': As a side effect of defeating the Big Bad, 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.

* This happens in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', at the end of ''Manga/StoneOcean'':

* At the end of ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', 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 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 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 ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'', it's revealed [[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''.

* Not to be outdone, Dr. Eggman attempts this in the ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' storyline "Sonic: Genesis" via the Genesis Wave. However, it turns out that Sonic couldn't be erased and, instead, the universe is altered to be the video game version with [=SatAM=] elements in it. As he later reasons, the Genesis Wave's original power source, a singular Chaos Emerald, wasn't enough. Enter ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'', in which Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily obtain all seven Chaos Emeralds and uses its power to completely alter both Mobius Prime and Earth 20XX. At the end of the story, Mega Man fixes his world, but Eggman interferes in fixing Sonic's, which leads to...the "nu252" universe, which pretty much altered Mobius to the point where it was mostly video game based. Even more, a vast majority of the characters were Ret-Goned by the event and the only ones who remember the old world are Eggman, Orbot, Cubot, Naugus, and the Freedom Fighters.
** And it's been clarified that those characters have since lost those memories of the old world, so there are no ties to the old continuity. The removed characters have been cut off completely. This was because of Archie [[ScrewedByTheLawyers losing ownership of those characters]] to former writer Creator/KenPenders.
** WordOfGod also revealed that the ''ComicBook/SonicX'' comic continuity was erased by the Super Genesis Wave.

* The ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' gives us Literature/FactionParadox, an especially vicious {{cult}} where Step One in your initiation ceremony is to hop into a timeship and go kill Grandma. [[TemporalParadox Before Mommy was ever born.]] This has the effect of erasing your existence in its entirety, making you a [[HumanoidAbomination living paradox]] and making you ''extremely'' hard to destroy.

** ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone2002S1E7 Upgrade]]" is about a woman who wishes 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.

* Pretty much the entire plot of ''VisualNovel/TimeHollow''. The villain messes with events in the past in order to cause something to disappear in the present, and the protagonist has to find and undo these changes.

* ''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. 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.

* ''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 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 Sayori in ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' after her 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.
* ''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 ''WebAnimation/BonusStage'', Phil travels back in time to episode 1 and kills his past self with an axe, in doing so causing himself to be "[[Film/BackToTheFuture1 McFlyed]]" and erasing him from existence. With nothing else to do now that his foil is gone, Joel hangs himself, causing every episode of the series to be erased from existence (including the previous episode, which, as a result of Joel's death, was erased in mid-episode).
* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': [[YinYangBomb Keedran]], in her true form, can just straight-up wipe you from existence by imploding you in light.
* In the ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'' video "The Weegee Uprising", Mario's descendant, New Super Duper Mario Plus Ultra, is erased from time due to the BadFuture where the Weegee Dolls took over being undone.
* 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. The result is all the damage that Rick did to The Doctor and the TARDIS being undone, and Morty doesn't know or recognize who Rick was.

* 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... 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.

* The titular ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'' in the webcomic of that name Ret-Gones Ash's male life and identity to everyone except themself and the stoner angel that did it to them. Emily's last two years (and acceptance into Harvard) were also wiped.
** Part of the concern for our heroes is some of the positive changes that this change has wrought. Ash has a better relationship with both parents, and Emily barely avoided being in a severe car accident that could very well have killed her (and this is before getting into their attraction to each other).
* In ''Webcomic/TRULifeAdventures'', Scarlett places Jack in a coma-like stasis so he won't exist in the new timeline she's constructing''. It works.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' this happens to Dave Davenport's 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 'Dave Davenport has never smoked'!
* ''Webcomic/{{Cheer}}'': Four bullying [[JerkJock jerk jocks]] get turned into cheerleaders. Nobody much notices or cares. The few who do know all decide not to rock the boat since everyone seems happier.
* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', in the ''Torg Potter'' parodies of ''Literature/HarryPotter'', it is eventually revealed that the reason everyone keeps talking about [[TheTropeWithoutATitle "You-probably-don't-know-who"]] and such is because the character in question accidentally erased himself from history and everyone's memories, so that no-one really did know who even though they knew there had been someone.
* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}''

* PlayedForLaughs with one character in ''Webcomic/SuperStupor'', who has the ability to punch through time -- he uses this power to abort criminals in the womb.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''Webcomic/{{MYth}}: Distillation''. Athena writes herself into existence the moment she comes out of Zeus' mind, to the point everyone already knows her ''from a long time ago''. Even Zeus has vague memories of knowing her before but he's not sure until Prometheus assures him of them. Officially, Athena is a girl that Zeus took in from Cronus' castle after Metis' death. The only one who knows the truth behind Athena's existence is Prometheus, being the one who took her out of Zeus' head.
* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', we find out this is the reason he can't reveal his own first name: His name was used as a sacrifice to seal a dangerous [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot 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.

* 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.)
* ''WebOriginal/TheBookOfStoriesOCT'', where the Book's Unwriting could make not only individuals go Ret-Gone, but also to worlds and possibly to reality itself.
* 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 Carrie realizes why the current owner has no parents (an accident; it's implied the thing is more than a little cursed), and when 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.

* [=ErasUr=] in ''Literature/{{Pact}}'' removes all memories and records of anything it eats. This even applies to the text itself: the reader sees Blake and Rose go after the demon alone, but partway through the encounter, there are bloodstains and scraps of meat around that weren't there before yet obviously didn't come from them. They reason they must have taken allies into the battle and the demon ate them. Sure enough, from another character's perspective, we later see that they did take several goblins with them... but the reader was never given any indication of these goblins' existence, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou because they were erased by the demon]].
* In ''Literature/{{Curveball}}'', the entire island of 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 they return to the spot where they parked their bikes [[WhamLine and find]] ''[[WhamLine four of them]]'' [[WhamLine parked there]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeriesS1E2Yesteryear Yesteryear]]", Spock is temporarily Ret-Goned until he creates a StableTimeLoop preventing his death as a child.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TrippingTheRift'', Chode and Gus travel to the beginning of time to witness the creation of the universe, and accidentally kill God, Retgonning his influence from the universe. Upon returning to their own time, it's actually rather pleasant, up until Chode and Gus brought in the concept of evil with them, which caused an immediate death spiral for all life everywhere. The reason why? [[RousseauWasRight Well, with no God to tell people what NOT to do, no one ever had the idea of doing anything bad. No God, No Evil.]] But once the concept of "Evil" was brought in from the outside, with no fear of divine punishment for any crimes you commit, well, there's no reason NOT to do terrible things, up to and including senseless murder.
* In the season 5 premiere of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Finn, Jake and the Lich end up in [[RealityWarper Prismo]]'s wishroom. After [[OmnicidalManiac the Lich]] wishes for the extinction of all life, Finn, Jake and Prismo are the only living things left. Finn's solution? Wish that the Lich never existed. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Unfortunately it doesn't go as planned]], considering the guy he wished out of existence played a huge part in the series' backstory, resulting in a CosmicRetcon. It also ends up in a semi-{{subver|tedTrope}}sion: the Lich turned out to be the result of a devastating weapon, and an alternate version of him popped up anyway as that timeline's Jake (while that timeline's Finn became the Ice King)--which was the result of Prismo's wishes having an ironic twist (in this case, the Lich never existed ''until now''). Main Jake undoes the trope by using his own wish to retcon the Lich's wish into sending Finn and Jake home, meaning Finn never had to make his wish.

* 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 Rob, but the [[BodyHorror results aren't quite 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'', 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 Future Aku, since his erasure is what erases Ashi, as well as the evil cult that worshipped him.
** 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 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 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.
* In one ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'' sketch, Skeletor goes back in time to prevent He-Man from being born, but the spell he used turns him into a baby. He's taken in by King Randor and takes the opportunity to kill him and his mistress. Unfortunately, it turns out the mistress was Skeletor's mother and Randor was his illegitimate father, so Skeletor is erased from existence instead.
* The ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' episode "Future Shock" had three villains descended from Looten Plunder, Dr. Blight, and Verminous Skumm sent back in time by Zarm to secure their future by killing a girl who would grow up to be a prominent defender of the environment. In the end, the three villains screw up and fire at Ma-Ti by mistake. While Ma-Ti survives, the failure to kill the little girl causes the Eco-Villains' descendants to disappear because of their timeline never transpiring.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', the botched opening of a portal between dimensions starts to destroy the universe in which the series takes place, erasing not only space but time as well as such that certain events never happened. Naturally, characters slowly end up having this happen to them as a result, having never existed and being forgotten by most characters. For one character it's a lot worse, only having half their body erased; they survive, but with [[BodyHorror horrific results]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** In the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS4E12TrapperKeeper Trapper Keeper]]", a cyborg who calls himself Creator/BillCosby comes from the future to destroy Cartman's trapper keeper. The episode ends with the trapper keeper destroyed, causing him to fade away, having fulfilled his purpose.
** In ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkPostCovidTheReturnOfCovid'', Cartman's motivation for opposing his friends' plan to travel back in time to prevent COVID-19 is that it means he won't change his ways and start the family he has now. Though he does have a change of heart and helps them create a better timeline, his initial fears are realized when he ends up a lonely, raving hobo in the new timeline.
* During the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''[='s=] Chaos Emerald Saga, Sonic's desire for a chili dog in ancient Egypt prevents his ancestors from meeting, leading to him being erased from existence. Tails quickly fixes this problem and brings Sonic back.
* The ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}} Challenge of the Superfriends]]'' episode "Secret Origins of the Super Friends" had the Legion of Doom attempt to alter history to prevent Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern from existing, which was done by preventing baby Kal-El's rocket from making it to Earth during Krypton's destruction, Cheetah beating young Diana in the tournament she was supposed to win and Lex Luthor taking Abin Sur's power ring after forcing Hal Jordan out of the cockpit the power ring enveloped with green energy. The rest of the Super Friends eventually find out what happened and go back in time to fix everything and restore Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to the timeline.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'':
** In the first SeasonFinale, "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E24To26TheSavageTime The Savage Time]]", the Justice League, sans Batman, return to Earth from a mission in space to find the world has been conquered by a fascist Nazi regime due to TimeTravel causing the Allies to lose World War II. The Batman of this timeline is the leader of LaResistance whose parents were killed by the regime for speaking out. The Justice League decide to go back in time to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, but Martian Manhunter warns the alternate Batman that, if they succeed, he'll cease to exist. Considering that he's only known a brutal, totalitarian CrapsackWorld his whole life, Batman states that "nothing would make [him] happier".
** In another TimeTravel episode involving Vandal Savage, "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E19And20Hereafter Hereafter]]", after Superman's supposed death, Vandal Savage created a gravitational doomsday device which went horribly wrong and wiped out the entire human race, except for him, since he had CompleteImmortality. Superman ended up being transported thousands of years into the future, where he meets Vandal Savage, having repented his ways and remorseful for causing the end of the world. Future Savage is able to help Superman go back in time [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong to stop him before he was able to build his weapon]], and gratefully watches as human civilization materializes around him as he fades away from existence.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In "Last Day Of Summer", the Do-Over-Inator causes a persistent GroundhogDayLoop, but also causes sporadic rifts in the space-time continuum that swallow up things, causing people to forget those things ever existed; after a spoon (and, somehow, ''all'' spoons) is taken, people resort to eating cereal out of the bowl, whereas when Phineas and Ferb are taken away, they're completely forgotten. Since Doofensmirtz and Candace were right by the Do-Over-Inator when it activated, [[RippleProofMemory they remember everything that was taken]], and also remember the previous time loops.

* In ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'', a mild version happens to any Muggle who makes contact with London Below. After helping Door, Richard wakes up the next day to find he's effectively InvisibleToNormals unless he gets right in their face - and even then, they forget him in about five seconds. People on the street barge into him without noticing, his credit card is no longer accepted, and his own fiancee can't remember him. This is taken to the extreme when someone literally rents his apartment out while he's standing in it.
* In the ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' series, starting in ''Lost In A Good Book'', Thursday's husband Landen Parke-Laine gets erased from history through time travel, despite attempts to stop this. The Chronoguard then hold his existence hostage unless Thursday does a task for them.
** This has already happened to Thursday's father, although because he's an experienced Chronoguard himself, this doesn't prevent him popping up on occasion to give Thursday advice. They've wiped him from history, but they haven't actually stopped him existing yet (although he now has [[NoNameGiven no first name]]). Don't think about this too hard, and especially don't wonder how ''Thursday'' can exist.
** At one point, there is a support group for people with family members who have been Ret-Goned. Then some of the Ret-Goned are retroactively de-Ret-Goned. The former support group members go to the remaining support group to thank them for their support during the Ret-Gone period, but because the de-Ret-Goning was retroactive, the support group don't recognize them and think they're being mocked.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series, "balefire" is a DangerousForbiddenTechnique that burns the victim's thread out of the Pattern entirely, not just now but in the past; the amount of "backburn" depends on the intensity of the spell. Everything you did in the past few however-much-time never actually happened. This has resulted in much confusion where people ''remember'' dying even though their deaths were retconned out by the spell.
** In the War of Power in the series' BackStory, balefire was used to obliterate entire cities, with the backburn reaching back for ''days''. When you retcon that much stuff, what happens? You threaten a TimeCrash, is what happens. By mutual and unspoken agreement, ''both'' sides stopped using the spell and declared it a DangerousForbiddenTechnique.
* ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries'':
** This is a risk of messing around with FasterThanLightTravel. One alien hints that entire civilizations have been erased this way, and that's only the ones who left evidence behind.
** ''Redemption Arc'' shows a variation of this. In both cases, the only person who remembers the missing person being there at the time of the event was there in the room with them. However, these people didn't vanish from time. A look in the records showed that they did exist, but died years earlier and if they hadn't died, they very likely would have ended up working on the project that they are claimed to have vanished during. This implies that the witness, or at least their memories of the person, was transplanted into an alternate universe where that person was already dead.
* In the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' novel ''Dragons of Summer Flame'', those who die while fighting the forces of All-Father Chaos are eliminated completely from existence, including the memories of the entire world. The only evidence they were ever there at all is the empty clothing and suits of armor left behind. Their method of doing so? All they need is for you to see them, and listen to them for a few seconds, so their words can steal your will to exist away. Or touching them will do that too. Chaos The All-Father was not a nice person, and his creations express this very well.
** In a later book, a group of shadow-wights survive by feeding off the memories of a small village, rather then wiping the villagers from existence, allowing the wights to survive indefinitely with their victims none the wiser.
*** A short story titled, appropriately, ''Gone'', describes the fate of a group of treasure hunters who go to an island populated only by shadow wights hoping to find loot. The story is told by way of a diary, with the author repeatedly getting confused (at one point IN THE MIDDLE OF WRITING AN ENTRY, as the person he was writing about gets erased at that very moment) because his past entries mention people who were never there. The final entry is made by the last survivor, who thinks that the entire diary is actually a work of fiction someone wrote as a present for him.
* All Travelers in ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'' are Ret-Goned from their specific worlds after they take their first trip to another territory. They have no histories, no traces of evidence, no sign they ever existed. The people they knew still remember them, but there are no physical records of them and their journals serve as the only other proof of existence. Bobby Pendragon gets this in full, including having his house and family vanishing. Though the fact that Travelers are Ret-Goned has helped the Travelers a few times in discovering that someone is [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Saint Dane]].
* 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. It works.

* ''Literature/TheEmpiriumTrilogy'': Once they convince Queen Rielle to kill Corien, Remy and future-Eliana disappear, since the circumstances that brought them to the past no longer happened.
* At the end of Creator/MadeleineLEngle's ''Literature/ASwiftlyTiltingPlanet'' 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.
* One of Adam's powers in ''Literature/GoodOmens''.
* Happens to the protagonists in the book ''Superstition''. 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.
* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Literature/{{Mort}}'', after the title character refuses to collect the soul of a princess who should have died, the universe attempts to carry on as if she had died, causing much confusion as the citizen begin mourning the loss of someone though they don't know who or why. Said princess has to constantly remind people in the same room that she's present.

*** 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.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's novel ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' has this happen to the heroes. Fortunately, the reason it happens is also the means of their escape -- a TimeTravel device that allows access to TheMultiverse and establishes that they live in a MutuallyFictional MassivelyMultiplayerCrossover. Within the work's RecursiveCanon, a rival "Author" deleted them from their home universe in an act of revenge.

* The Literature/{{Goosebumps}} book "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom" involves the protagonist being forcibly transported back through his own life by the clock. He manages to find it again and return to the present before ceasing to exist, but realises that his AnnoyingYoungerSibling was now never born due to a flaw in the clock. He considers going back and attempting to fix things, but it's left ambiguous.
* In the short story "The Edge of the World" by Michael Swannick, three high school kids, one girl, two boys, full of hormones and teenage angst, blow off school one day and decide to go look at the edge of the world, which is not far from the American military base where they live. While there they look at caverns carved into the cliffs by ancient monks. They each make a wish - and one boy wishes he had never been born. They get their wishes. They only trace left by the boy is a quickly fading dream-like memory in the mind of the girl.
* A variant in the ''Literature/YoungWizards'' series: If a wizard breaks the Wizards' Oath, he loses his wizardry and everyone in the world forgets he was ever a wizard.
* In "TheTimeOfYore" by Michail Uspensky the main hero, a slapdash bloke named Jihar, runs up to his neck in debts and finally pawns his very fame to a greedy merchant. Due to interference of dark magic, the due-bill has this power: nobody in the whole world recognises him anymore, all his heroic achievements are attributed to the merchant, and even the books written about Jihar are changed.
* Sweet wee Cassie from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' considers preventing a person from being born to be more humane than killing them. It wouldn't normally have been a problem for the poor host who would have been infested ''against his will'', but she happened to have a time machine at the time she came to this revelation. Sorry John.
* [[Creator/StephenKing Stephen King's]] ''Literature/BlockadeBilly'' is about a baseball player that was retgoned from the history books.
* In ''Literature/PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus'', it is eventually revealed that [[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.
* This happens to Kahlan in the last three novels in the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series. Richard is the only one who remembers her, including herself; Kahlan, in an interesting twist, is rendered amnesiac and is kept as a scullery maid by those who retgonned her.
* ''Literature/{{Stardoc}}'': The end of ''Dream Called Time'': Cherijo and Duncan end up in an alternate timeline where they never existed, due to their [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong setting right 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''...and so, as it turns out, is their daughter Marel.
* In Lisa Smedman's "Storm of the Dead", a high magic ritual erased drow deity Kiaransalee's memory from existence. With the goddess now devoid of followers, the Ret-Gone effectively killed her.

* This is done in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' so as to destroy Arthur's happy ending in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'' and allow a fifth book to be written. Arthur and Fenchurch are travelling around the galaxy, and make a "perfectly ordinary hyperspace jump." [[DiabolusExMachina Once they get out of hyperspace, Fenchurch has disappeared, the seat next to Arthur is empty, and records show that Arthur boarded the flight alone.]] In the radio series, the flight attendant points out that Arthur ''has his feet on the empty seat''. This is apparently a hazard of being from a Plural sector, the parts of the universe which have a multiverse. Hyperspace jumps interact with that in weird ways.
* In ''Literature/ThoseThatWake'', this trope happens to places; forgetting about them makes them fade from existence where they are turned into pocket dimensions by Man In Suit.
* In Creator/RebeccaLickiss's ''Literature/EccentricCircles'', things that fall into the rifts are ''gone''. They also get something of that effect when fantasy writers end up RewritingReality though less drastically.

* The ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' gives us Literature/FactionParadox, an especially vicious {{cult}} where Step One in your initiation ceremony is to hop into a timeship and go kill Grandma. [[TemporalParadox Before Mommy was ever born.]] This has the effect of erasing your existence in its entirety, making you a [[HumanoidAbomination living paradox]] and making you ''extremely'' hard to destroy.
** Later on, they came up with a variant of the Time Lords' De-Mat Gun, Continuity Needles. Anyone stabbed with one will never have existed. Unusually, the works of that person do not disappear - Time fills in the cracks by attributing them to someone else. That said, Needles have their limits and it's not recommended to use them on people who leave massive impressions upon the timeline. Case in point, a Needle almost caused a disaster when someone had the bright idea of attacking [[UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton some British alchemist]] with it.
** Also in the DW Expanded Universe, the novel ''Recap/NewSeriesAdventuresEnginesofWar'' sees the Daleks develop a cannon that erases whoever gets hit with it from history, including the partner of one of the main characters.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'' has Sky Marshall Beaux pull a gun and shoot Richard, the protagonist of the story, a gut-shot fatal wound, whereupon several others pull their guns and shoot Beaux. Immediately, Beaux disappears (as does Richard's wound) by an erase as if Beaux and the gunshot wound were simply blackboard chalk.
* In ''Literature/ThreeDaysToNever'', the villains have a sorcerous ritual that can remove a person from history. Part of why they're after the MacGuffin is that with it they will be access to a more direct and less difficult method to do the same thing.
* Similar to the example of Hermione erasing her parents' memories of her, in the backstory of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', one of the protagonists, Dalinar Kholin, sought out a being that grants a boon and a curse that it feels is appropriate. For instance, one person who sought it out is mentioned as having gotten enough food to feed his family through hard times, but at the cost of seeing everything upside down. In Dalinar's case, he cannot remember anything about his wife other than the fact that she existed, and can't even hear her name when others speak it. Given that he sought the being out after her death, it really isn't clear at first whether this was his boon, his curse, or both.

* In Natalie Parker's ''Literature/BewareTheWild'', the protagonist's brother runs off into a nearby swamp after an argument, and a girl she's never seen before comes out shortly afterwards, at which point everyone begins acting as if she's ''always'' had a sister; any physical evidence of her brother, including photos, has also been changed. It soon becomes clear that this has happened several times before - the only person who believes her immediately is a classmate whose troubled reputation stems from a breakdown after his best friend vanished when their car crashed into the same swamp - and towards the climax, the force responsible begins to extend through town, unpersoning people fast and often.
* In ''Literature/BooksOfCthulhu'' volume 5: ''Time Loopers'' short story "Academic Legacies", they have it so that anyone eaten by a Hound of Tindalos is removed from the timestream and even close family members cannot remember they ever existed.
* In ''Literature/{{Zeroes}}'', Thibault/Anonymous, whose superpower is normally being a ForgettableCharacter, seems to suffer a serious case of this after his DespairEventHorizon.
* This is the basis of the short story "Exit" by Harry Farjeon - and [[https://vimeo.com/76992293 the short film]] adaptation starring Creator/JulianGlover.
* 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 killing yourself.
* A device that does this (the Time-Space Separation Unit, or "Tisser") is the central conceit for the novel ''Literature/WarOfOmission'', by Kevin O'Donnell Jr. The titular war is what happens when the device gets mass-produced. There is no retconning around the absent people; an example from the book is that if a town's mayor was zapped, the citizens wouldn't ask "where is the mayor?" or even "who's the mayor here?", but "why don't we have a mayor?" Interesting in that not just people and objects, but ''places'' are affected -- when someone does it to a diner table, people wonder why the diner has such an awkward corner. Also, the effect is reversable -- the deleted places, people, etc. are stored in the device and can be retrieved at their original locations.
* In the ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' book ''The Fran That Time Forgot'', Franny prevents the BadFuture where her teenage self terrorizes the world with an army of elephant monsters from ever happening by choosing to stop getting angry over her EmbarrassingMiddleName and instead concede with the people laughing at her that her middle name actually is pretty funny.
* 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. Both brothers are doomed and forgotten in the ending.
* In ''Literature/{{Pale}}'' this is the modus operandi of the Hungry Choir, even down to injuries-when Brie loses both her legs to it, her family is convinced she's always lacked feet, though they can't explain why she doesn't own a wheelchair. Similarly, full victims vanish entirely from memory, though careful investigation can reveal discrepancies-when Gabe is eaten entirely, his chair sits empty in class, unnoticed.

* Whenever the Fighting Pumpkins cheer squad of ''Literature/DyingWithHerCheerPantsOn'' avert an apocalypse, reality rearranges itself so that it never happened at all. If the squad happens to die in the process, they get erased too; only the next squad will remember them, and then only if they can find the logbook. After the short story of the same title, there's no evidence of the massive alien invasion the Pumpkins sacrificed themselves to stop except for a few scorch marks and the fact cheer tryouts are open again.
* 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, 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 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.
* In Literature/{{Murmuration}}, When someone dies in Amorea, the scientists managing the project erase all memories of their existence and reshuffle the remaining citizens so the absence isn't felt. When Oscar dies, Mike only half-remembers bits and pieces of his voice and is driven nearly insane trying to find out why. Before his death, Oscar suddenly remembered a woman he loved named Nadine, who had also been erased from Amorea, presumably after her own death.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Chrononauts}}'', this is done with the aptly-named card "Your Parents Never Met". The chosen player's SecretIdentity is revealed, and they must trade it in for a new one.
* Munchkin features a card that when used lets you take any item/steed in play, put it in the appropriate Box of Holding and carry on as if the card you just put in the box ''never existed''.

!!!DC

* This is one of the higher-end abilities of ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}'s Omega Beams in ''ComicBook/NewGods''.

** In ComicBook/DCRebirth, it's revealed Wally got retgonned following ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint|DCComics}}'', 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}}''.
* ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'': The immortal Hamed Ali was literally erased from existence. His lines became sketchier, he lost his color, he became nothing more than rough pencil lines and design notes, and disappeared into nothing at all.

* 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]]. Nevertheless, the ''Earth 2'' continuity still introduced a counterpart to Obsidian anyway during the events of ''Earth 2: World's End'', though he is obviously [[UnrelatedInTheAdaptation not Alan Scott's son]] for the previously stated reasons.
** When Superman and Wonder Woman kissed, it had the side-effect of erasing Booster Gold from existence. People still remember, but they only think he has disappeared. As a man from the future, Booster Gold disappearing is quite ominous... He ended up getting collected by Brainiac, leading into the events of ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}''.
* The fate of reality, courtesy of the Anti-Monitor, according to the Amazonian prophecy, in DC's ''ComicBook/DarkseidWar''.
* The ''entirety'' of the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship from the New 52 was Retgonned when the pre-New 52 Superman and New 52 Superman fused together in ''ComicBook/SupermanReborn'', with the resulting combined timeline basically being pre-New 52 Superman but with [=NuSupes=]' dead parents, briefly using his armoured costume and some clearing up of continuity surrounding his son's birth. This new, whole Superman has ''never'' dated Wonder Woman, and is all but said to have only ever dated Lois Lane.
* From the aftermath of ''Superman Reborn'', there's an issue of Clark recounting his past, from the beginning of his career as Superman to his current life. One of the things he remembers is his death and the Supermen who came after. Missing is [[ComicBook/Superboy1994 Kon-El]], Superboy. Superman ''does'' say he feels like something's missing.
* Kon-El (Conner) has definitely been erased as the new iteration of his best friend ([[ComicBook/Robin1993 Tim Drake]]) has no clue who he is, but upon hearing his name feels like he's missing someone. Tim and Stephanie have set off to figure out what's happened to the timeline due to Tim realizing someone named Conner has no longer ever existed. He is found to have been shuffled off to [[ComicBook/AmethystPrincessOfGemworld Gemworld]] and therefore spared from the mess that created the New 52 but stranded from the main universe and brought back into continuity for ''ComicBook/YoungJustice2019''.

* The Team Titans were originally shown to be from an alternate future who traveled back in time to the 1990s. They briefly worried that altering the past might erase their future and themselves, only to realize the timelines differed. In ''Zero Hour'', it turns out their future was one of many "dark timelines" created by villain Monarch to use the "heroes" as his army. After Monarch's defeat, this entire timeline is wiped out and the Team Titans vanish. The only ones left behind are Mirage and Terra II as it turns out they're actually from the present, having been given new memories by the Time Trapper to be his "moles" inside the Team.
* In ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'', it's revealed [[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 [[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.]]
* 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 who's all too pleased that his new master's wishes are limited by his exact wording to persuade Earth-One Johnny Thunder into surrendering and undoing his actions.

!!!Marvel

!!!Other
* Used in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' arc "World's End".

* ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', and [[ItsAWonderfulPlot all the other stories inspired by it]].
* ''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. 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.

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

* In ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness,'' Sutter Cane [[RewritingReality deletes all memory]] of Linda Styles once she has completed her role in his plot.

* In ''Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader,'' the spell to make one beautiful (which in the book is implied to be a BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor) takes an even more sinister turn. Lucy wishes to look like Susan and finds that she is Susan -- in a timeline where Lucy never existed. Among other consequences, she and her brothers never went to Narnia. Luckily, [[NightmareSequence Aslan intervenes.]]

* 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 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/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Happens to the future Sentinels when the murder of the program's creator, which led to the dystopian future they reside in, is averted.

* In ''Film/StargateContinuum'', Cameron Mitchell didn't exist in the altered timeline because the man Ba'al killed to stop the Stargate from reaching North America was his grandfather. The other two teammates who [[RippleEffectProofMemory retained their memory of the original history]] did have duplicates running around, though. One of them died in an unrelated incident by HeroicSacrifice before the three of them showed up, and the other briefly talks to his clone over the phone.
* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': 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. 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 erases herself from her parents' memories for their safety. An interesting example in that she {{Retcon}}s ''herself'' out.
* ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017'' explains how the villagers are clueless about the giant castle only a day's ride from the village: the curse on the Beast includes erasing the castle and everyone in it from their memories.
* ''Film/ANewYorkChristmasWedding'': Azrael sending Jenni back to make things right with Gabby (who it turns out is his mother) results in his conception not occurring, so he's presumably never an angel since he didn't even come into existence.
* One of the subtly scary elements of ''Film/Monster1999'' is that, due to the titular beast's RealityWarper abilities, anyone who dies during one of its triannual rampages is immediately forgotten about to the point that nobody believes they ever existed once the Monster is slain.
* ''Film/TheFlash2023'': The Dark Flash is revealed to be 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.

** Another commercial (from the "Advertising/GetRidOfCable" series) concerns a man who, bored after waiting forever for the cable guy, becomes addicted to cheddar after volunteering for lab experiments. In one of his bungled robbery attempts, he falls into a time machine and is teleported back to the time of his conception. He meets his would-be father, who chases him out of the house and into the path of an oncoming ice cream truck...[[ShaggyDogStory only for him to fade out of existence anyways because his parents never ended up doing it that night.]]

* ''Franchise/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''

* In a variant of the GrandfatherParadox and this, in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fan-comic "Twilight's Erasure", Cozy Glow from an AlternateTimeline erases pregnant Twilight's mother's baby in the past from the existence, which also not only makes present Twilight's presence become unnoticed by every pony, but also causes her to lose her talents and cutie mark, and eventually [[FountainOfYouth slowly regresses her.]]

* Happens to an entire ''universe'' in ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops''. Potentially even more then one.
* In ''Fanfic/CrownsOfTheKingdom'', this is what happens to anyone who falls into an Oubliette.
* In ''Fanfic/LongTermMemories'', this happens to [[FusionDance Garnet]]. 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 Amethyst are the only ones that remember her.

* One of the few ''inversions'' of this trope is in ''Fanfic/FistOfTheMoon''. Sailor Pluto starts the whole story off when she arranges to change the future, her present, so that ''more'' people are there than originally survived. She wrote them in instead of erasing them.
* ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'' shows the darker side of PeggySue stories when Asuka and Shinji are sent back to before the Twelfth Angel but 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''': 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.
* ''Fanfic/TheLastGreatTimeWar'' has weapons ''and'' creatures that can cause this.
* An amusing example happens in ''Fanfic/TheKeysOfTheKingdom''. [[Franchise/SailorMoon Chibi-Usa]] arrives from the future, and accidentally reveals a big hint on Tuxedo Kamen's identity to Sailor Venus when she refers to him as "Mamo-chan". Unfortunately, Sailor Venus is crushing on Tuxedo Kamen, and Usagi hasn't been awakened yet. Chibi-Usa is abruptly replaced by a different girl.

* In the ''MLP'' fanfic ''Fanfic/AftermathOfTheGames'', this happening to 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.

* Used in ''Fanfic/InfinityCrisis'', a crossover with ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and the ''Series/ArrowVerse''.
** As a result of the deaths caused by the Infinity Gauntlet affecting the entire multiverse in May 2018, the ''Waverider'' and Zari have to stay outside of time because of the risk that those erased include any of Zari's ancestors or the ancestors of those who would design the ''Waverider'', with the result that they would ease to exist if they return to the regular universe.
** Imra did not dissolve into dust, but vanished, intended to reflect how her future no longer exists.
** Ava Sharpe notes that hundreds of futures are blinking out of existence after this attack.
* 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.
* This happens to Grand Admiral Thrawn and his ship in ''Fanfic/TheGreatStarshipBattle''.
* In ''Fanfic/CardcaptorRad'', this is essentially The Erase's shtick. She not only wipes Rachel from existence, but that the timeline shifted itself to fill in the gaps the erased person caused. 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 Commorragh, home of the Dark Eldar. This has major implications for Slaanesh who, thanks to the mutable nature of time in the Warp, had many daemon minions created from the souls of both Dark Eldar and their victims who hadn't been born yet. As billions of 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). [[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.
* In ''[[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/hybrid-hive-eat-shard-worm-mgln.55056/ Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard?]]'', Taylor and Hive experiment with a spell they think will enable time travel. The spell is performed via remote controlled drones on an alternate version of Mars. ''Something'' happens, at which point they realize Mars ''never existed'' in that dimension. It's implied the ''universe itself'' did this and the only reason Taylor and Hive were spared is that they were in a different dimension.
* 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 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.

* 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.

* ''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. 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 (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 - Animation]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

* ''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!")
* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'':

*** In the set up for the scrapped ''Green Arrow and the Canaries'' spin-off, Dinah Drake (the second Black Canary) appears in 2040 shortly after Oliver Queen's funeral, with all record of her history - along with any evidence of a Black Canary at all - wiped clean in the intervening years.

*** 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. 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.

** ''Series/{{Supergirl 2015}}'': Part of the reason the League came from the distant future was in hopes of stopping a plague this way. One of Supergirl's current villains, Pestilence, will eventually evolve into Blight, who will go on a rampage across the universe. Once they succeed in preventing this from ever happening, all the other Legionnaires in stasis on their ship are suddenly cured, as if they had never been sick at all.

** Inverted on ''Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}}''. Dawn popped into existence, leaving the viewers scratching their heads for a while since all the characters acted as if Dawn had always been with them. It turns out that Dawn is fabricated and all the characters have false memories. Just what their memories of the first four seasons were changed to is never specified, but they all remember Dawn being there alongside them the entire time. A number of the official comics set during the first four seasons have Dawn as a character, with notes attached saying, in effect, "Yeah, she didn't exist back then, but everyone remembers her being there, so..."

* In Creator/AlastairReynolds' ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' books, this is a risk of messing around with FasterThanLightTravel. One alien hints that entire civilizations have been erased this way, and that's only the ones who left evidence behind.

* In ''Literature/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'', this is the Collective of the Retconning Crocodiles' favorite ''modus operandi'' for dealing with people who inconvenience them. Other beings and entities, such as Chronon Fleas, the Decade Stone or the Imperium, are also capable of this, with different rules depending on the source and circumstances. However, despite appearances, individuals who are retconned out of existence don't ''completely'' cease to exist, as their consciousnesses remerged in [[PlaceBeyondTime the Oblivion]], from which, with considerable effort, it is possible to retrieve them.

[[folder:Web Original]]

** 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. 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.]]

* In the ''MLP'' fanfic ''Fanfic/AftermathOfTheGames'', this happening to 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.]]

* 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.