History WesternAnimation / SouthParkPostCovidTheReturnOfCovid

* ForWantOfANail: The message of the episode ended up being that there was no timeline where Randy didn't "fuck a pangolin" and cause the pandemic, but there were always options to change how they reacted to the event and attempt to make things better instead of worse. Stan, Kyle and Cartman ended up changing events to help them stay closer friends during the pandemic instead of drift away like they did, which had a ripple effect that made the world deal with the pandemic in a much better way... and [[TakeThat prevent the creation]] of ''Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy''.

* CanadaEh: Despite being raised in the USA, adult Ike is shown to have embraced his Canadian heritage by speaking like other Canadians in the show and celebrating Canadian Boxing Day. Though it's understandable as he has shown to be proud of his Canadian Roots in past.

* AlasPoorVillain: A non-lethal example. Stan and Kyle pity how Cartman turned out, with his new fate being painted in somber light in general due to how he selflessly sacrificed his prosperity in the bad timeline in order to help everyone else.

* AlasPoorVillain: Stan and Kyle pity how Cartman turned out, with his new fate being painted in somber light in general due to how he selflessly sacrificed his prosperity in the bad timeline in order to help everyone else.

'''Cartman:''' ''(swigs a bottle of whiskey)'' Fuck you, ''guuuuuys!'' You can suck mah ''fucking'' dick! ''(notices Stan and Kyle)'' Fuck you! ''(flips them the bird)''\\

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: After the pandemic ended, Butters was left grounded in his room by his parents, [[AbusiveParents who then abandoned him for sixteen years]] and caused him to turn into an insane NFT scammer after only having the Internet for social interaction. Averted in the new future, as he is happy in his new job as a restaurant waiter (who just became manager) and with his sanity still intact and still being friends with the other main characters except for Cartman.

* TheAloner: Once everyone, including his friends, severs their ties with Cartman, he ends up completely alone and isolated from people; as a result, he grows up to be a [[TheAlcoholic drunk,]] [[CrazyHomelessPeople crazy homeless man]] who's extremely miserable. His only method of communicating with the people who used to be associated with him is to angrily curse at them, which certainly doesn't draw them into wanting to be with him.

** Kyle never had much luck in romance as a kid while he severed his relations with his friend, resulting in him living alone and having no friends in the bad future. In the good future, Kyle finds woman who he loves enough to marry and start a family with and is still friends with almost everyone, with Kyle's children considering his best fried Stan their HonoraryUncle.
** Kenny grew up poor and died constantly as a child, and while he does become a rich and well-respected scientist, he become resentful towards his peers and gets KilledOffForReal in the bad future. While his his career remains the same in the good future, he much more happier and is still alive this time around.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Ultimately Cartman becoming a lonely homeless man in the new future makes sense given the factors of his personality. His lazy and childish tendencies would not allow him to develop the skills needed to take care of himself when he gets older while his rude, bigoted, and manipulative attitude towards everyone would cause people not to give him a job while also driving the rest of his peers away from him.

* AnAesop:
** Empathy and {{forgiveness}} are the most powerful forces of the world, or, as the special puts it, "cutting each other some slack". The pandemic couldn't have been prevented, even with time travel, so it's only until everyone forgives each other, understands they are all stressed about the same thing, and learn to trust each other again that the future changes for the better.
** You can't worry about things that are way out of your scope of control. Instead, focus on what you can change, take special care of them, and appreciate what you do have rather than bemoaning what you don't. It'll spare you a lot of stress later on.

* JadedWashout: Not only has Eric Cartman takes Stan's previous role as the bitter and miserable alcoholic in the resided future but he also becomes a homeless bum who’s done nothing with his life beyond angrily cursing at people, a far cry from the manipulative ChildProdigy and happy family man he once was during his childhood and original timeline respectively.

* JadedWashout: Not only has Eric Cartman takes Stan's role as a bitter and miserable alcoholic in the resided future but he also becomes a homeless bum who’s done nothing with his life beyond angrily cursing at people, a far cry from the manipulative ChildProdigy and happy family man he once was during his childhood and original timeline respectively.

** Anti-Vaxxers, once again, as Clyde is willing to trap everyone in South Park for more than three decades, and also kill Kyle's past self as well, [[ItsAllAboutMe just because he doesn't want to get vaccinated]]...but he'll gladly have a line of cocaine if you're offering.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Cartman's youngest son demonstrates a lot of the same TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour he did when he was young, starting with him repeatedly saying [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes "Fuck]] [[HonoraryUncle Uncle]] [[{{Catchphrase}} Kyle"]] and ending with him pulling the lever to send Clyde back in time to kill Kyle immediately after his father decided not to do it.

* DidIMentionItsChristmas: The story is suddenly revealed to be set around Christmas when Ike is shown trying to get to South Park for Boxing Day (though given the show's version of Canada, Canadian Boxing Day may well be in July).

* ObliviouslyEvil: All Kyle wanted to do was go back in time so they can undo the pandemic and sees Cartman as a manchild who only pretended to turn his life around to spite him and wants to keep everything as it is to keep them all miserable. It's only when Yentl breaks up the fight that he fully realizes what he's doing, he's forcing Cartman to sacrifice his wife and children and he tries to reassure them (mainly himself by the looks of it) that he's not the villain.

* OhCrap: The asylum director's reaction when Kyle mentions they gave Victor a piece of paper, which lets him escape by using it to talk to another patient through their shared cell wall.

* PyrrhicVictory: {{Downplayed}} in that Kyle doesn't suffer any great cost but instead of feeling victorious that he finally wins his rivalry over Cartman by having the better life in the revised timeline he feels sad seeing that Cartman be reduce to a homeless and miserable drunk.
* RedemptionEarnsLife: Cartman's two oldest children who despite not liking Kyle encourages their father to change the past, so that everyone can have a better future, including Kyle. Sure enough, Kyle's children in the fixed future greatly resemble Cartman's two kids in the past timeline implying that they were reincarnated as Kyle's kids as a reward for letting Cartman do the right thing while Cartman's youngest child completely disappears as punishment to trying to have Kyle killed in the past.

** Contrary to how he was always on the losing end of fights as a kid, Adult Cartman can not only fight, he gains the upper hand against Kyle.

* DramaticIrony: In the new future, Kyle laments that Cartman never did anything with his life and became the pitiful, alcoholic hobo who yells at people. Unbeknownst to everyone (including Cartman himself), Cartman in the old timeline gave up his best and happiest future so everyone else can have better lives, even resurrecting Kenny, Sharon, and Shelly in the process. Contrary to Butters' opinion that nothing could have saved Cartman from the path he was on, Cartman's wife, Yentl, ''was'' the person who saved him in the old timeline. If she had met Cartman in the new timeline, she would have been repulsed by him for his behavior and lack of self-care.

** Given that Clyde's refusal to get vaccinated caused a lot of problems in the future and tries to kill Kyle in the past, he receives no sympathy when Cartman kills Clyde.
** Butters invokes this trope when discussing Cartman's future life as a drunken miserable hobo, saying that he deserves this fate for being such a terrible person as a kid, to which he isn't wrong about.

* BaitAndSwitch: Future Butters/Victor Chaos was built up to be a complete madman, presumably a MadScientist or perhaps a SerialKiller. Turns out he's a shady [[SnakeOilSalesman NTF salesman]] but [[NotSoHarmlessVillain they weren't exaggerating how dangerous he was]].

* BeyondRedemption: Butters insists that Cartman can't be saved as there was nothing that could save him from himself.

* BittersweetEnding: On one hand, some parts of the BadFuture stuck around regardless, such as COVID-19 still cropping up with new variants, China becoming a major superpower, and [=NFTs=] being a mainstream currency. To make matters worse, Cartman sacrifices his own happiness to give everyone a better future while he's stuck as a drunk, homeless loser. On the other hand, however, everyone else's personal lives are much better, the worst parts of America's future society are more manageable, and COVID-19 is no longer the huge, terrible threat it used to be.

* DidIMentionItsChristmas: The story is suddenly revealed to be set around Christmas when Ike is shown trying to get to South Park for Boxing Day.

* GrayingMorality: The conflict between Kyle and Cartman becomes morally grayer as adults compared to when they were children. As kids, it's clear that Kyle was an OnlySaneMan who always tried to do the right thing and had far higher morals than Cartman who committed atrocities out of pettiness or self-interest, especially towards Kyle. When they became adults, however, Kyle wanted to fix the future but for selfish reasons because he was miserable and jealous when Cartman got the happier life, while Cartman wants to prevent the future from being fix, but for more sympathetic reasons in that he's afraid he'll loose family if the future is change. Then Cartman decides to help Kyle fix the future where despite Cartman being the more selfless of the two, Cartman loses his happy life and becomes miserable in the new future while Kyle gets the happier life.