Line #129 Main/SequelReset


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6	->''"This pissed you off'' so ''much that you gon' hit the road again, to find the Number Two Headband'' again, ''just so you can kill the Number One, '''again'''."''
7	-->-- '''Ninja Ninja''', ''Anime/AfroSamurai Resurrection''
8
9	So, your original work was a success. The writer has finished things off with just about all the awesomeness that the story universe can muster. Everything is wrapped up. The universe is saved, the forces of evil are either destroyed or in full retreat, TheHero got the [[LoveInterest girl]], the rightful heir got his throne, et cetera. All in [[RidingIntoTheSunset one awesome finale]]. Well, what better way to capitalize on it than making a {{sequel}}, right?
10
11	Trouble is, you didn't really have a sequel in mind when you wrote the original story; it's quite self-contained. In fact, everything's been tied up with a nice little ribbon: The story is conclusively over. The heroes look up to the author, er, the sky, and ask SoWhatDoWeDoNow And the author [[ShrugOfGod has no answer]].
12
13	Say hello to the Sequel Reset. The opposite of the SequelHook, this is when something (a scene, a line of dialogue, etc) occurs at the beginning of the sequel in order to establish that, as it turns out, the story isn't quite as over as we thought. It's used in order to justify the existence of the sequel and compensate for the lack of a Sequel Hook in the first one; inevitably, between the first movie and the second, something has happened to shake up the status quo that was restored at the end of the first movie in order to provide the sequel with the same (or similar, at least) character motivations / dynamics and plot requirements. TheHero and the LoveInterest have [[DowntimeDowngrade broken up]]. The [[CharacterDevelopment important lesson]] the hero learned [[AesopAmnesia is forgotten]]. Looks like the Big Bad [[BackFromTheDead isn't quite as dead as we thought]]. Maybe our hero's discovered that VictoryIsBoring. Or just when the Hero thought his mundane life was back to normal, the good guys come stampeding out of his past and back into his life; it turns out the world wasn't put to rights after all and they need his help again...
14
15	When it's done well, it can open up a story that we'd thought was finished for a rewarding second visit. After all, life goes on even for fictional characters, and just because everything ''looked'' tied up with a neat little bow at the end of the first installment doesn't mean that the situation might not have changed a little later down the track. Furthermore, it can provide an interesting examination on ''why'' the ending of the first movie wasn't quite as open-and-shut as we thought by showing us what would happen if the seemingly incompatible lovers ''did'' get together, or what would happen if no one believed the crazy story those people who claimed to save the world told.
16
17	However, just as the SequelHook can come across as being cheesy, clichéd and hokey, the Sequel Reset can sometimes be quite contrived. It's sometimes apparent that the [[ExecutiveMeddling producers]] aren't going to do anything new, nor enrich the world of the first movie by showing us what happened later down the track; instead, they may just be trying to cash in on something that worked the first time around by offering us more of the same or, perhaps, completely overturning the clear -- and ''satisfying'' -- ending of the first piece. It's often an unfortunate sign that {{Sequelitis}} is just around the corner, by forcing open an ending that was clearly and satisfyingly shut for no other reason than to provide an excuse for a sequel. If it's particularly grating, then it may fall into FanonDiscontinuity.
18
19	One way to write yourself into a corner is to leave nothing left for your heroes to do other than fill in a CV and get a job. (Assuming they aren't already the rulers of somewhere.) If you find yourself in the position where you can't plausibly draw up a new villain without the fans screaming DiabolusExMachina, you might need to draw up a new universe. Which isn't easy.
20
21	Ways to get out of this vary.
22
23	* TimeSkip: Move the story TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. Your heroes, their descendants, or some other talented individual will have found something menacing to confront by that time.
24	* KnightErrant[=/=]ExpansionPackWorld: The heroes have saved one country, but there's a dozen others on the map to save. Get on your bikes/horses and go save some other people.
25	* Get a new villain: Places to recruit new villains vary. You may need a new {{Mordor}} (or a [[TheRemnant broken one to rebuild]]). And there's always JustForFun/HowToCheatDeath if you want to go SerialEscalation.
26	* HappyEndingOverride: Despite the heroes' best efforts, things go very badly for reasons not under their control and their previous efforts are pretty much all for nothing.
27
28	Symptoms often include SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome. In video games, this is often accompanied by a BagOfSpilling. Often overlaps with TwoPartTrilogy.
29
30	See also SamePlotSequel.
31
32	'''WARNING: Contains spoilers.'''
33
34	----
35	!!Examples:
36
37	[[foldercontrol]]
38
39	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
40	* The first ''Anime/AfroSamurai'' series/movie ended with Afro killing Justice, avenging his father, claiming the Number 1 Headband, and finally making peace with the decisions he made in life. The movie ends in a somewhat distant future where Afro is having a rematch with his former friend Kuma who has the Number 2 Headband, ending with the concept that the cycle of revenge will continue. Then comes ''Afro Samurai: Resurrection'', where Kuma returns, looking less like a robot no less, with his previous unexplained Sister Sio, looking for revenge, Afro has gone back to regretting his actions in the past. Lampshaded by Ninja Ninja, who himself is part of the reset:
41	-->'''Ninja Ninja:''' This pissed you off '''so''' much that you gon' hit the road again, to find the Number Two Headband ''again'', just so you can kill the Number One, '''''again'''''.
42	* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' does this after Ichigo defeats Aizen with the "final Getsuga Tensho", which [[BroughtDownToNormal strips him of his powers]]. Ichigo stays a {{Muggle}} for awhile before he begins to pursue alternative power sources, such as Fullbring. This allows the series to return to the more mysterious UrbanFantasy feel of the early chapters, and gives Ichigo's allies a chance to [[CantCatchUp catch up]]. And then that earns a reset as [[spoiler:the shinigami once again enter the picture. His human friends don't advance any further in their powers and Ichigo regains his shimigami powers, setting the series back to status quo]].
43	* The manga version of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' ends with a bonus panel of Homura and Madoka reuniting after Homura's UncertainDoom at the anime's ending. The manga's telling of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' recontextualizes this scene as [[spoiler:a hallucination Homura saw while transforming into a witch]] as a result of the movie's plot.
44	* The anime version of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' technically counts, as it was originally intended to only have one season which sports a ResetButtonEnding in the form of the Sailor Senshi getting killed and then resurrected without their memories -- even crossing into the BookEnds trope with a scene borrowed from the first episode. Then, within the first two episodes of the second season, the Sailor Team gets their memories back to fight {{Filler Villain}}s. Ironically, in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], the second story arc kicks in without any traces of this trope within the same chapter where the first one ends.
45	* At the end of the first season of ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'', Shana finally confesses that she's in love with Yuuji. However, in the interests of maintaining the WillTheyOrWontThey {{Tsundere}} {{UST}}, the second season reveals that he didn't hear her, and she can't get up the nerve to tell him again.
46	* ''Anime/SpeedRacer'' has been remade for television three times, twice by American studios, but only one of them was a reboot. ''WesternAnimation/SpeedRacerTheNextGeneration'' follows the adventures of Speed's ''sons'', taking place 40 years after the events in the original show. Coincidentally, this premiered during the franchise's 40th anniversary, and around the time the [[Film/SpeedRacer feature film]] was released.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Card Games]]
50	* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering's'' GothicHorror ''Innistrad'' setting, humans are besieged by zombies, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and the like. In the final set of the block, ''Avacyn Restored'', [[SealedGoodInACan Archangel Avacyn]] has been released from the Helvault, the curse on the werewolves has ended, and humanity is saved. Then comes ''Shadows Over Innistrad'', where the werewolves are back, humans are hunted rather than protected by the angels, and, oh, would you look at that, [[AngelsDevilsAndSquid the Eldrazi have arrived]].
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
54	* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' ends with the Parr family facing no legal repercussions for their superheroics while taking down the Omnidroid and Syndrome, and Agent Dicker implies that Supers will be able to come out of hiding again soon. (Also Violet gets a date with a cute classmate.) The last shot is the family suiting up to fight a new villain, The Underminer. ''WesternAnimation/{{Incredibles 2}}'' [[ImmediateSequel begins]] with that same fight against The Underminer--and afterwards, the Parrs get arrested for [[DestructiveSavior the property damage they caused during the fight]]. Turns out superheroism isn't quite legal yet, and the whole process is lengthier than the first movie implied. Most of the sequel revolves around a PR campaign to convince lawmakers and the general public to legalize Supers. (And Violet's relationship with the cute classmate also gets set back to square one, when LaserGuidedAmnesia results in him losing all memory of Violet.)
55	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie2TheSecondPart'': In ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'', the main character Emmet was supposed to be TheChosenOne, but he was despised and shunned by the other Master Builders [[TheChosenZero because he has no combat skills, no building skills without using the instructions, and he is also kinda of an idiot]], [[spoiler:but even though the prophecy was made-up]], he fulfills this role when he becomes [[TookALevelInBadass skilled in both combat and building]], while not changing his personality much. Come the sequel, the world was attacked by repeated alien invasions and multiple characters like superheroes disappeared while trying to find the alien planet, it became increasingly hard to rebuild, [[AfterTheEnd and Bricksburg became a post-apocalyptic wasteland]], the reset comes because everyone else had to adapt to the hostile environment and became angsty or grumpy, but Emmet still acts cheerfully like nothing changed, so he is once again shunned and has to go on his adventure alone.
56	* ''WesternAnimation/PinocchioInOuterSpace'' features a prologue which explains that Pinocchio misbehaved so much that the Blue Fairy turned him back into a puppet. Over the course of the film, he proceeds to [[RecycledInSpace experience familiar situations IN SPACE]].
57	* ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' ended with HappilyEverAfter, but the sequels seemed devoted to putting it off. ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'' revealed there was an ''actual'' Prince Charming that was supposed to break the curse on Fiona, and that her royal parents were still around; after the lovers' honeymoon they're forced to meet her parents, causing another go-round of problems regarding Shrek's self-esteem. In ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird'', Shrek had to get out of being king to return to the swamp. ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'' resorted to ItsAWonderfulPlot.
58	* Used dramatically in the ''Franchise/ToyStory'' films:
59	** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'''s ending has Woody and Buzz resolve that they'll stick together and support each other "to infinity and beyond", knowing that the day will come where Andy won't play with them anymore. Come ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', this process is shown to be emotionally difficult on all of them, showing that youthful optimism alone isn't enough to get through life's biggest challenges.
60	** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' ends with [[spoiler: Andy giving away his toys to a new kid before leaving off for college, breathing new life to the toys]]. ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4'' deconstructs this by showing that [[spoiler: Woody still can't move on from Andy and doesn't fit in with Bonnie, and he elects to amicably join Bo Peep as an adventurous lost toy, where he's much happier]].
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
64	* ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' begins with Ellen Ripley being rescued from hypersleep by a deep space rescue crew, and ends with Ripley, Hicks, Bishop and Newt all escaping LV-426 (and Ripley getting a new surrogate daughter and finally destroying the xenomorph infestation at the source). ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' begins with Ripley being rescued from her escape pod by a group of prisoners, and revealing that for all the pyrotechnics of the previous film, the alien menace is still alive and well, and the other characters who had survived are now dead.
65	* ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'': Justified in ''Wake Up, Ron Burgundy'', a faux-sequel compiled from the massive amounts of {{Deleted Scene}}s (including a dropped sub-plot) left on the cutting room floor.
66	* ''Film/AustinPowers: International Man of Mystery'' ends with the titular hero having undergone CharacterDevelopment, allowing him to mature and adjust his free-spirited Swinging Sixties ways to the more conservative but still liberated nineties, and setting him up in married life with his partner, Vanessa. So the beginning of the second movie reveals that Vanessa [[RoboticReveal was actually a robot]] and blows her up, which Austin mourns for maybe five seconds before realizing that means he's single again and instantly reverts to his immature old ways. This parodies ''Film/JamesBond'' movies and the [[GirlOfTheWeek Bond Girls]]. The ''Bond'' movies usually don't even hint at what happened to previous Bond girls; ''Austin Powers'' uses the most ridiculous explanation possible, and doesn't offer one at all for the third movie.
67	* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' actually qualifies, since the SequelHook at the end of [[Film/BackToTheFuture1 the first movie]] was actually [[PoesLaw a joke ending]] in the vein of AndTheAdventureContinues, because a sequel was never planned at that point[[labelnote:*]]The writers have said that if it ''was'', they never would have put Jennifer in the car, and the sequels go through a lot of trouble to write her out of the story[[/labelnote]]. While that ending is where ''Part II'' begins, where this trope comes in is an added moment where Biff witnesses the [=DeLorean=] disappear in the first film's ending, setting up him seeing it again in 2015 and stealing it to kick-start the real plot of ''Part II'' and eventually ''Part III''.
68	* Starting with the third, the ''Film/DieHard'' sequels start with John [=McClane=] back to being a down-on-his-luck cop on the outs with his family (in the second, he's in a relatively good mood... until disaster finds him ''again''). Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by his being something of a headstrong CowboyCop with a drinking problem; the acclaim he gets for his heroics is balanced by repeatedly getting in trouble. In ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'' he specifically cites his ChronicHeroSyndrome as the reason for his divorce.
69	* At the end of ''Film/DirtyHarry'', after killing the Scorpio Killer, San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan throws his badge away, disgusted with the system that allowed Scorpio to go free. In the sequel ''Film/MagnumForce'', Harry is still on the SFPD, though on loan to stakeout.
70	* ''Film/EatingOut'': After getting together at the end of the first movie, Kyle and Marc break up at the start of the second one, leaving them free to pursue new guy Troy.
71	* Used in ''Film/GhostbustersII'': As it turns out, [[WeirdnessCensor no one believed that the heroes did save the world at the end of the first movie]] (apparently people believe the events of the first movie were SomeNuttyPublicityStunt), meaning that the city authorities screwed them over and sued them for all the property damage, destroying their reputations and forcing them out of business. Furthermore, Venkman and Dana broke up, and Dana married another guy and had a kid with him. Then, it all starts happening again...
72	* At the end of ''Film/TheHangover'', all three protagonists learn a bit about themselves during the whole ordeal and seem to come out of it better people and better off than they were before. ''Film/TheHangoverPartII'' however backpedals on said character development so they can go [[RecycledScript on another misadventure after they get wasted]] [[RecycledINSPACE only now in Bangkok]].
73	* The end of the original ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' makes it pretty clear that Connor [=McCleod=] is the last immortal at the end and has won the prize, but then they made sequels, and a TV show, and a spinoff. "There can be only one," until there's more money to be made. [[Film/HighlanderIIITheSorcerer The third movie]] especially felt like a by-the-numbers remake more than a sequel. With a DiabolusExMachina villain. Apparently the game can reset if it realizes it forgot somebody; that's the whole plot of the movie.
74	* ''Film/HomeAlone2LostInNewYork'' simply gave Kevin AesopAmnesia, ticking off his family yet again and getting left alone in a completely different way.
75	* ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII'', after a brief recap of the first film's ending, moves forward to inform us that the LoveInterest has (off camera) broken up with the hero and his mother has moved away, leaving him to go to Japan with his mentor and confront a new set of karate bullies.
76	* In ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII'' this is done again when the previous movie's love interest elected to stay in Japan.
77	* ''Film/MajorLeagueII'' had the characters back for a new season, and sucking again, trying to overcome new problems. In the second movie, their success in the first movie goes to the lead characters' heads. Also, the first movie ends with the team winning the division title and reaching the playoffs. The sequel reveals that they were swept in the playoffs and are trying to get back there, which they do. The second movie ends with them winning the League Championship Series and earning a berth in the World Series. Odds are pretty good that the original plan for the third movie was to reveal that they lost the World Series so they could then try to accomplish ''that''.
78	* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', Neo must kung fu fight his enemies in the virtual world of the Matrix until he learns to control the simulation and transcend physical combat. In the sequel, his apparent apotheosis is downgraded to a [[TookALevelInBadass new level in badass]], as he must fight a more powerful group of enemies with his kung fu.
79	* Also used in ''Film/MenInBlackII''; the first movie ends with Agent K happily retired, his memory erased and given a chance to start things over with the love of his life. This is all abruptly taken away from him in the sequel, however, for little other reason than to allow K to return and carry on the character dynamic he'd had in the previous movie with Agent J. Furthermore, the dynamic between J and Dr. Laurel Weaver (Agent L) that was set up at the end of the first movie was ''also'' abruptly {{Hand Wave}}d away, due to Linda Fiorentino not returning.
80	* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' ends with Will and Elizabeth happily in love and Captain Jack Sparrow free and aboard his ship at last, and extremely wealthy thanks to all the plunder the ''Black Pearl'' had accumulated in ten years of marauding (even without the cursed Aztec gold, there was quite a hoard in the pirates' cave). In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'', Will and Elizabeth are torn apart (on their wedding day, no less), the treasure is sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and Jack is in danger of losing his ship and life again.
81	* ''Film/PitchPerfect'': At the end of the first film, the Bellas are victorious in the national singing competition, making up for Aubrey embarrassing them on national television. The second film starts with the Bellas getting humiliated again, this time by Fat Amy, and thus have to prove themselves again.
82	* ''Film/RoboCop2''. At the end of the first film, Murphy is speaking in his regular human voice and has come to terms with the fact that despite the physical changes, he's the same man he always was. In the sequel, he talks like a robot and is still conflicted about his status as a being (to the point that he tells his wife that the face of the unit is just a copy of Murphy's original face).
83	* ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}''
84	** At the end of the original ''Film/{{Rocky}}'', Rocky goes the full fifteen rounds with heavyweight champ Apollo Creed and before the final bell an exhausted Creed tells Rocky "Ain't going to be no rematch!" In the beginning of ''Film/RockyII'' Apollo changes his mind.
85	** In an extreme case of reset, all the wealth made by Rocky as a world famous heavyweight champion in the sequels is lost in ''Film/RockyV'' by a crooked accountant and Rocky is left as poor as he was in the first movie.
86	** That one begins with the aftermath of the Drago fight, where Rocky is worried about his health for the first time ever and it's ''very'' strongly hinted that there will be severe consequences if he keeps fighting. In ''Film/RockyBalboa'', Rocky (now pushing 60, incidentally) goes the distance against a much faster and more agile opponent who's in the prime of his career and suffers no ill effects whatsoever.
87	* At the end of ''Film/SilentHill'', protagonist Rose is[[spoiler: trapped in a foggy alternate dimension with her adopted daughter Sharon, who has re-merged with her dark half to become a reincarnation of the creepy little girl Alessa.]] In ''Film/SilentHillRevelation3D'',[[spoiler: Sharon is back in the real world with her father - thanks to Rose's between-movies, completely unexplained discovery of half of a magical seal - and she apparently never re-merged at all, because her other half is still back in Silent Hill.]] Additionally, the town's resident evil cult[[spoiler: still exists somehow, and in great numbers, despite having been bloodily wiped out in the climax of the previous film.]]
88	* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Sequel Reset strikes back with a vengeance in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', where all progress made in the Original Trilogy is either immediately reset or done so by the end of the film. After the Galactic Empire was seemingly defeated in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', it returns reincarnated as the First Order and is little worse off, still capable of fielding enormous warships and even more ridiculously sized super weapons. Likewise, the Jedi have again been wiped out by a rogue pupil, and the Republic overthrown, leaving a scrappy band of Rebels to fight the evil empire, headed by a mysterious evil wizard and his masked apprentice, bringing everything back to as it was at the beginning of the original trilogy of films.
89	* At the end of ''Film/StepUp Revolution'', Sean and Emily got together and the Mob got a gig dancing in Nike commercials. At the very beginning of ''Step Up: All In'', we find out that Emily dumped Sean and that the members of the Mob are now struggling to make ends meet since their commercial career didn't work out.
90	* All the original ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' movies:
91	** The [[Film/TheTerminator first movie]] uses a StableTimeLoop. Instead of just showing the future that was [[YouCantFightFate destined to happen]], they wanted to capitalize on the formula formed by the first, which was impossible with how they used TimeTravel in the first movie. What did they do? They ''changed the rules of the universe'' (not being able to agree on the rules of time travel between installments would become a franchise staple).
92	** The first movie begins by explicitly stating that the confrontation between Reese and the T-800 would mark the final battle between humanity and the machines, and midway through the film Reese remarks that resistance has all but won and sending the T-800 in the past is a last ditch effort... yet somehow they're still able to send another cyborg into the past for the [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay sequel]]. And Judgement Day was prevented in the second film, so there's absolutely no way for any future movi-- no wait, ''[[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines T3]]'' comes along and reveals that John Connor's actions only delayed the machine war rather than outright averted it (if only to guarantee the StableTimeLoop keeps on).
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Literature]]
96	* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'': [[http://www.carlocollodi.it/carlo-lorenzini/ll-continuo-interrotto-delle-avventure-di-pinocchio/ Collodi did a draft]] in which [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle Pinocchio's transformation into a real boy is undone]] and the only thing that stuck from the ending is that Geppetto recovered and resumed his job as a woodworker.
97	* The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' has to contend with this any time an author's looking to write [[HighFantasy High Space Opera]].
98	** In ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' (the foundation of the modern ExpandedUniverse), there's a LampshadeHanging: Leia muses, looking at Endor, that if the war really ended there, that means the "mop-up action" has been going on for a good five years now--and they might call themselves the New Republic, and they've retaken the capital planet, but they're hardly the galaxy-spanning bastion of civilization the original one was. That trilogy is one of the better sets of books.
99	** With ''Franchise/StarWars'', at least, it makes sense that there'd be a lot of the Empire still left to fight. Just look at WesternAnimation/RobotChicken.
100	** ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire''. Okay, it's one thing to claim that maybe winning Endor didn't cause the entire Galactic Empire to spontaneously combust, but when Emperor Palpatine is BackFromTheDead with no fewer than four superweapons that are on par with or better than the Death Star, you might as well wonder what the point of the original trilogy was. (And [[PopularityPower Boba Fett's back, too, why not?]])
101	* At the end of the first ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' book, Thursday is happily married, [[MeaningfulName Jack Schitt]] is [[SealedEvilInACan trapped in a book]], [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Acheron Hades]] is dead, and the literary police, formerly charged with the dull job of tracking down stolen and counterfeit books, face an interesting future policing where Fiction meets the real world. In the next book, Thursday's husband is erased from existence, the literary police are still doing drudge work, there's easier ways to get between Reality and Fiction and characters do it all the time, and there's more in the Schitt and Hades families to contend with. [[TwoPartTrilogy The second through fourth books are a trilogy dealing with all this.]]
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
105	* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': Series 5, which had been intended to be the final series, ends with everyone about to have their happy ending and Brittas about to become the European Commissioner for Sport. However, the show was picked up for a further two series with new writers and as such, some of the fates of the characters had to be reversed. It's most notable with Brittas, who is confirmed to have lost the job after failing the medical (thanks to his stint being dead at the end of Series 5), and with Carole, who had been due to leave for Austria with a new man - she ended up having to return after he ran off with a nun.
106	* At the end of the third and intended final season of ''[[Series/BlakesSeven Blake's 7]]'', although the Liberator has been destroyed and the crew left stranded, the [[EvilEmpire Federation]] has been reduced to a VestigialEmpire and BigBad Servalan is dead. The first two episodes of [[PostScriptSeason season 4]] deal with them acquiring a new ship and base, and by the end of the third episode, the Federation is BackFromTheBrink and Servalan is revealed to still be alive.
107	* When ''Series/{{Glee}}'' first started up, the show received rave reviews leading up to its mid-season hiatus. The first episode after the break untied nearly every plot thread that the first had tied up within its runtime.
108	* Spoofed in ''Series/HikoninSentaiAkibaranger'', an OfficialParody of ''Franchise/SuperSentai'', after it had ended its first season with [[spoiler:the characters NoticingTheFourthWall and trying to stave off ExecutiveMeddling and cancellation... unsuccessfully.]] When it came back for a second go-round, the creators got around the ending by making their next subject of parody the shameless {{Retcon}}; using [[OffTheShelfFX extremely cheap "flashback" footage]] to claim that the first season's big plot twist never happened and the original story was able to get on without interference by a ConflictKiller. The ''second'' season's big plot is was that [[spoiler:the Retcon was a lie and the first season happened exactly as shown; the changes to and ''existence of'' the second season are due to the villain meddling with the ExecutiveMeddling to her benefit.]]
109	* The 1996 run of ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' {{Christmas Episode}}s finishes with Del, Rodney and Uncle Albert having achieved their dreams of wealth and success and [[RidingIntoTheSunset walking into the sunset]]. Then, they made a ''later'' series, which takes this all away and reduces them to the same barely-scraping-by life they were leading before, except Rodney would now become a father, and Albert's will saved the Trotters from getting evicted.
110	* The movie ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' ends with Daniel living happily on Abydos, O'Neil rediscovers his sense of purpose and retires, and the BigBad is defeated. ''Series/StargateSG1'' begins with Daniel's HappilyEverAfter kicked over by the new BigBad, which introduces a slew of {{Big Bad}}s, which causes O'Neill (with two Ls) to come back from retirement, which in turn causes the Stargate Program to be reopened.
111	* Parodied in ''Series/ATouchOfCloth''; the first series ends with the reveal that the serial killer, and the person who [[DeadPartner murdered Jack's wife]], is [[spoiler:DaChief Tom Boss]], who gives a full confession to all of it before [[DisneyVillainDeath swan-diving off a roof.]] He appears back in his old job in the very next episode with the flimsiest hand-wave that there was a "full enquiry" that found him innocent, and everyone moves on.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Radio]]
115	* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'':
116	** In the last of the original six episodes, Zaphod, Marvin and Trillian were all eaten by a [[UnstableGeneticCode Haggunenon]] transformed into the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, while Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, who took the only working [[EjectionSeat escape capsule]], were left stranded on prehistoric Earth. The ChristmasEpisode that continued the series brought back Zaphod and Marvin, with the AssPull rationale being that the Haggunenon that ate them "like seconds later made the mistake of re-evolving into a really neat escape capsule." (Trillian also survived, but was PutOnABus for the remainder of the series.)
117	** The Tertiary Phase, being adapted from [[Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything a book]] which opens with Arthur and Ford still on prehistoric Earth, but also having to follow the Secondary Phase, which had already moved them off it, decided that Zaphod had never actually left the artificial universe from Fit the Seventh, and therefore the Arthur and Ford he picked up in Fit the Eighth weren't the real ones.
118	[[/folder]]
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120	[[folder:Video Games]]
121	* ''VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga'': In ''Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight'', Kyle Katarn starts out as a BadassNormal who 'learns the ways of the Force to become a Jedi like his father'. Come ''Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast'', Kyle has cut himself off from the Force, regressing to BadassNormal status and having to re-learn how to use the Force.
122	* The plot of ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' about restoring the rightful monarch Emily Kaldwin to the throne after a coup orchestrated by the members of the nobility. [[VideoGame/Dishonored2 The second game]], taking place 15 years later, is also about restoring the rightful monarch Emily Kaldwin to the throne after a coup orchestrated by the members of the nobility. While the specific circumstances are different enough, the core circumstances are so similar that even [[HumanoidAbomination The Outsider]] can't help but lampshade it, dryly remarking that "it happened ''again!''"
123	* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy5'' reveals a monstrous entity that [[InvokedTrope has actually invoked this trope]] and undid the resolutions from the previous games, [[spoiler:known as the Devourer, the game's BigBad and GreaterScopeVillain for the previous games. It turns out that each game in the series is one of the Devourer's simulations, and in the fifth game, has wiped out the party's memories and made a reset to the world for its manipulations]].
124	* As ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' has civilization [[AWorldHalfFull slowly being rebuilt]] in the California wasteland, ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' moves the setting to the [[CrapsackWorld Capital Wasteland]], where the damage is even worse (despite taking place a few decades after ''2'') and society is closer to the primitive levels of the first game.
125	* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
126	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' ends with the Planet more or less being saved (though in a very ambiguous manner), Sephiroth being defeated, Cloud's demons sorted out, and the love triangle being solved thanks to a DeathOfTheHypotenuse. The movie sequel, ''Advent Children'', brings Sephiroth back, resets Cloud to an Angstier state than ever before, has the Planet be threatened by a mysterious disease, and somehow manages to keep the love triangle going even beyond the dead with plenty of undead cameos from Aerith. The remake, ''Advent Children Complete'' explains at least one of these wild resets. God knows that if they make another sequel, you can be sure these issues will all pop up again... somehow.
127	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' ends with a BittersweetEnding: CorruptChurch Yevon sees its tenants completely discredited, Sin is gone for good, but Tidus is gone forever, and as sad as Yuna is about the latter, she's willing to accept that and move on with her life...except in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'', new factions have arrived in the power vacuum left behind by the fall of Yevon, there's a lurking threat even worse than Sin, and Yuna isn't as over Tidus as she makes it out to be.
128	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' ends with both Cocoon and Pulse being more or less saved and the heroes all surviving to face the promising new future they had made. While the main cast were [[spoiler:turned to crystal during the ending]], all but two were returned to normal before the credits rolled. This neatly tied up to plot arc for the remaining two characters, since [[spoiler:their original purpose was to destroy Coccoon, but instead they redeemed themselves and saved it instead]]. By the time Square decided to make ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'', they chose to invoke a time-paradox that caused [[spoiler:Lightning to either remain trapped within the crystal or otherwise sucked into the unseen world of Valhalla]] meaning that the first game no longer officially ends the way it originally did. The original ending is remembered only by Lightning's sister, Serah. In addition, while ''Final Fantasy XIII-2'' [[spoiler:definitely ends on a real cliffhanger unlike the first installment]], ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'' the game picks up several hundred years after XIII-2 where Lightning wakes up from her sleep to save the world and probably her sister, Serah.
129	* The original ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight'' doesn't leave a whole lot of room for a sequel, meaning that ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' had to do this. While the overall plot of WonTheWarLostThePeace flows pretty naturally from the first game's ending, there's also a very evident BagOfSpilling with plot-relevant items like the Spheres and the Falchion, as well as the main BigBad, Gharnef, being revealed as NotQuiteDead (something the original didn't even imply). Marth's army also largely scatters to the winds, and he's only given a small cadre of inexperienced or half-dead knights to work with, requiring him to go on an adventure and get most of the old band back together.
130	* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' ends with Kratos being offered a seat in Olympus as the new God of War, with some implications his involvement extended to even modern times. Then right at the beginning of ''VideoGame/GodOfWar2'', Kratos had his godhood stripped away, learns about Zeus's secret, then by the end of the third game [[spoiler:wipes out the entire Greek pantheon, including himself]].
131	* The canon ending of ''VideoGame/{{Infamous 2}}'' had [[spoiler:Cole using the RFI to cure the plague wiping out humanity at the expense of the lives of all Conduits, including himself, and being posthumously hailed as a hero for it.]]. In ''VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon'', [[spoiler:not only have the Conduits not been wiped out, but enough remain for the government to form an army dedicated to hunting them down and Cole is vilified once again]].
132	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series generally does this by setting the games so far apart from each other that it's just in time for Ganon to break free from his seal, or for someone to revive him. Other times, they name certain games as {{Prequel}}s to allow for Ganon to come back without undoing the ending of games. For direct sequels featuring the same Link as a previous game such as ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass Phantom Hourglass]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', or even as far back as ''[[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink Zelda II]]'', this is averted, as they either take place in different lands where the plot doesn't affect the main setting of Hyrule, or they simply just follow the previous story directly.
133	* Nearly every installment in the ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' series ends with Larry hooking up with the "final girl", and then immediately breaking up with them at the start of the next game so Larry can go [[CasanovaWannabe do his thing]] for the rest of the game. In fact, ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry: Love For Sail!'' begins just minutes after the conclusion of the previous game, ''Shape Up Or Slip Out!'', when the final girl of the last game has had her fun with Larry, takes his money and leaves him chained to a burning bed.
134	* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' had Snake being framed as an ecoterrorist by the Patriots via the destruction of an oil tanker, with the entire world believing Snake to be dead in the aftermath. When ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' comes around, quite a few of Snake's old friends and allies (Col. Campbell, Naomi, Mei Ling, Meryl, etc.) are well aware that Snake is still alive and that he didn't do it. ''Sons of Liberty'' pulled this itself by [[spoiler: writing Meryl out of the story and having Snake team up with Otacon to continue to destroy Metal Gears, thus overriding his apparent settling down after the events of the first game. It also had Liquid Snake return by possessing Ocelot through his right arm. Interestingly enough, this was apparently an InvokedTrope on Kojima's part.]]
135	* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' starts stating that Guybrush broke up with Elaine since the last game, and that he became famous after slaying [=LeChuck=], but eventually people started forgetting and doubting about it, so he went to set out on a new adventure to regain its former glory. Later it's revealed that [=LeChuck=] revived, but as a Zombie.
136	* Valve was unable to work the reset necessary to set up ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' into the game itself, so they patched a YankTheDogsChain moment into the ending of the first game, where Chell, having destroyed [=GLaDOS=] and escaped the facility, is intercepted by an Aperture robot and dragged back inside. Then the opening act of ''Portal 2'' itself ends with [=GLaDOS=], already being inexplicably back inside and far less destroyed than before, getting reactivated so she can subject Chell to solving more test chambers.
137	* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1'' ends with the Saints having driven out all the other gangs, and the corrupt politician Richard Hughes killed by a pricey DeusExMachina before he can gentrify the Row for his own benefit and at the expense of the poor and disenfranchised already living there. Come ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'', Ultor went ahead with Hughes' plan, the Saints have collapsed, and three even worse gangs have filled the power vacuum.
138	* ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' ends with the last Metroid specimen dying and the planet Zebes destroyed. As a result, the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' is actually set before ''Super Metroid'' and ''Metroid II: Return of Samus''. However, ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' has Samus revisit the Metroid homeworld and bringing [[TheVirus the X species of parasites]] into a space lab orbiting the planet, as well as discovering that [[spoiler:the Galactic Federation had been genetically breeding new Metroids]] (something which also apears in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'', which is also set after ''Super'').
139	* This is a summary of the plot in ''[[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Yoshi's New Island]]''. Turns out the DeliveryStork brought Mario and Luigi to the wrong house, so it hurries off to the real one. Before getting promptly attacked by Kamek out of absolutely nowhere all over again and leading to another adventure- the only difference is [[spoiler:Mario and Bowser’s adult counterparts are helping their baby counterparts because… reasons.]]
140	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / SequelReset