History Main / WhereItAllBegan

[[quoteright:256:[[VideoGame/BreathOfFireII https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/svscmvu.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:256:It took 10 years and 38 levels [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence to get that door open.]]]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots'', the titular cat's journey ultimately leads him straight back to the village of San Ricardo, his hometown. And it's there, on the same bridge outside of town, where Puss once again finds himself having to choose between his loyalty to the village and his brother Humpty.

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen almost ended like this]]. The Wuxi Finger Hold was still going to happen, only Po and Tai Lung would crash land in Po's bedroom, where Tai Lung would see all the Furious Five merchandise, and be confused. Basically the script would not change aside from taking place in a different location. The writers moved the final confrontation to outside Ping's noodle shop, since the original version did not make as much sense.

* ''Film/SoulMates'': The maze takes the two leads through a lot of rooms, but at the end it turns out they were going in a circle and they arrived back at the room they started at.

* Salmon: These fish are born in high mountain streams, at times hundreds of miles inland, past rocks and rapids atop the bodies of their dead parents. They travel downstream as they grow in size, some but not many (relatively speaking) dodging gauntlets of predators on their journey to the sea. The survivors, the most fit whether by disease resistance, speed, strength or luck, are the only ones to reach the ocean, where they are further culled by merciless mother nature. It is here they continue their growth and development for a few years, honing their skills and growing in strength for what lies ahead. At some point, they are called to the place where it all began, to spawn and join their ancestors in the hallowed halls of salmon valhalla. So they return, the only way they can, the hard way, swimming and leaping up the rapids and short waterfalls the entire route. Overwhelming their predators, man, bears and manbearpigs with sheer numbers, rock solid [[TheDeterminator determination]] and belly filling deliciousness, eventually enough of them make it back and engage in an orgy of death and babymaking before they shed their mortal shells and ascend into the heavens.

* Sea turtles: They somehow always remember where their home beach is and always return there to lay eggs whenever need be.

* A pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, the birthplace of Mohammed and also the site of his first revelation of the Quran and thus the ''de facto'' birthplace of Islam, is ''de rigeur'' for Muslims.
* Ichiro Suzuki was the first Japanese fielder to make it big in Major League Baseball, signing with the Seattle Mariners in 2001 following nine seasons with NPB's Orix [=BlueWave=]. After twelve seasons with the Mariners he was traded to the New York Yankees, with whom he played for two and a half seasons before signing with the Miami Marlins for three more. He re-signed with the Mariners in 2018, and finally announced his retirement from professional baseball after a two-game series between the Mariners and Oakland A's on March 21, 2019 in Tokyo, where the teams were playing those games.

** The first movie of the Original Trilogy, ''Film/ANewHope'', begins on Tatooine, and the last movie of the Prequels ends there, so that probably counts, if you look at the films in order of production rather than in terms of in-universe chronology. Of course, the fact remains that we end up going to this desert middle-of-nowhere in five out of the six movies means we ''keep'' going back to where it all began.

* In the first ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' series, Lief and co. traveled back to Del after they [[GottaCatchThemAll gathered the]] [[PlotCoupons seven gems of the Belt of Deltora]] to drive back the [[EvilOverlord Shadow Lord]] from their land with the power of the belt and heir, Dain.

* The penultimate song in Green Day's album Music/AmericanIdiot, aptly titled ''Homecoming'' is about the protagonist, a young runaway, finally [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin returning to his home]] after hitting rock bottom. In the final song he is presumably still there as he tries to move on with his life.

* The stage adaptation of Music/AmericanIdiot has the two protagonists who left town returning in the second to last scene and each of the play's storylines finally coming together to reach the climax when they do. Specifically Johnny comes home from the city, apparently sober or at least attempting to be, Tunny returns from his military service having lost his leg but with the Extraordinary Girl now his girlfriend, and Will and Heather appear to finally reach a point where they can be friends and raise their baby together despite no longer being a couple when they welcome their friends home.

* "Everything You Know About WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls is Wrong" (DC run) has the kids of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten swapping stories of how the girls first came about, using the origins of ComicBook/{{Superman}}, ComicBook/SpiderMan and ComicBook/TheFantasticFour as parallels. When the girls themselves interject how the really came about, they get a failing grade as the kids were taking part in a creative writing lesson.

* "Everything You Know About WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls is Wrong" (DC run) has the kids of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten swapping stories of how the girls first came about, using the origins of ComicBook/{{Superman}}, [[Franchise/{{SpiderMan}} Spider-Man]] and ComicBook/TheFantasticFour as parallels. When the girls themselves interject how the really came about, they get a failing grade as the kids were taking part in a creative writing lesson.

* Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses:
** In ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'', [[MacGuffin Malachite's Hand]] is buried in the same field that the team start off in.
** In ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'', the swallowed team ends up in the same field as the final battle in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights''.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick:'' The final confrontation of the comic is set up in the very last stretch of Kraagor's Tomb (which is a series of ''dozens and dozens'' of consecutive dungeons)... which looks pretty much ''exactly'' like the initial levels of Dorukan's Dungeon, where the comic started out. For bonus points, the party immediately gets sidetracked into a SeinfieldianConversation with the exact same sort of D&D-related observational humor that the strip started out with, while their new companions [[MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness look on utterly baffled]].

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick:'' The final confrontation of the comic is set up in the very last stretch of Kraagor's Tomb (which is a series of ''dozens and dozens'' of consecutive dungeons)... which looks pretty much ''exactly'' like the initial levels of Dorukan's Dungeon, where the comic started out.