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May It Never Happen Again

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"You don't beat this thing, Ripley. You can't. All you can do is refuse to engage. You've got to wipe out every trace. Destroy any clue. Stop its infection from spreading. Make sure there's no chance of the human race ever making contact with it again. Because the moment it makes contact, it's won."
— Henry Marlow, Alien: Isolation

Naturally, when something bad happens, people tend to not want a repeat of it. Though some are content to just live their life, there are some times where the people involved will do things to ensure that whatever caused the conflict isn't just going to resurface.

If the conflict is a war, and both sides come to a truce, there may be an effort to permanently address the grievances of one or more parties, such that there won't be potential for another war over the same issue in the future when the peace treaty is an old memory. (e.g. If one party started the war because of a lack of key resources, such as food, there may be a mutual effort by both parties to build something which will provide a steady supply for time to come so there won't be a need to fight over food or whatever the resource was again.) If the conflict involves Sealed Evil in a Can, there may be an active effort to ensure that it is destroyed for good so that future generations won't have to bear the burden of resealing the creature again. Sometimes, a character might scare another into not restarting the conflict. If the conflict started because of something a character did, said character may vow to never do it again, though they could subvert this via Aesop Amnesia. Sometimes, a character may get up and leave. And sometimes, the trope might be subverted by it happening again for no apparent reason at all.

Generally, this serves to add more positivity to an ending by giving the characters a more hopeful outlook on the future. For something to fall under this trope, there needs to be a deliberate effort to a course of action specifically to prevent a repeat of the conflict — if the conflict is something that can't be repeated just because of the nature of how it was dealt with, but there wasn't an explicit declaration of an intent to do something in particular to prevent such a repeat, it doesn't count. (e.g. if the MacGuffin driving the conflict is incidentally destroyed in the final battle in order to deprive one side of the ability to use it at a crucial moment, it wouldn't count — but if said MacGuffin were destroyed by a third party in an effort to get two others to give up their fight, or if it's destroyed or disposed of as part of a truce, it would count.)

Compare Let Us Never Speak of This Again, in which the effort is made to forget the event, but otherwise nothing else is done. Contrast I'm Not Doing That Again and We Are Not Going Through That Again (in which a character(s) says out loud that he/she/they refuse to perform an action again, although whether or not they are successful depends on the circumstances and is often shown by the next scene cut), The Story That Never Was (for when a Cosmic Retcon undoes the whole plot), History Repeats (for when a historical event happens again), Never Be Hurt Again (which is one probable reason why these tropes are enacted), "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot (where it's acknowledged the plot could have been avoided), Put on a Prison Bus (when the villain is arrested so they won't do any more harm) and Here We Go Again! (which this trope tries to defy). Could be used to stop a Vicious Cycle, or overlap with No Man Should Have This Power, An Aesop, Radish Cure, A Lesson Learned Too Well, Persona Non Grata, or Status Quo Is God (though just as often, it's an inversion of Status Quo is God).

Warning: All Ending Tropes are Spoilers Off by default, so proceed with caution.

Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Godzilla: The Planet Eater: After Ghidorah is vanquished in the final battle, Haruo finds out that Martin is planning to use the alien nanometal to restore human civilization to a pre-Godzilla technological level, then Haruo has a vision of Metphies gloating that Ghidorah will come back to try destroying everything yet again so long as humanity remains obsessed with advancement. To try and prevent this, Haruo flies with the last of the nanometal toward Godzilla, who atomizes it for good.
  • Hello Kitty: In the cartoon "Replying Properly", Kitty meets a strange creature called the Yeah-what who grows whenever he hears someone say, "yeah?" or "what". Since he appeared when Kitty replied to others too casually, Kitty decides to say, "yes" more often to keep him from coming back.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative: In the aftermath of the disaster that was the pursuit of the Phenex, all data and information about Newtypes and the Psycoframe technology was sealed away as something humanity was just not ready for. By the time of Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, the term "Newtype" is for all intents and purposes a bedtime story told to small children.
  • At the end of Naruto, Team 7 just barely managed to defeat Kaguya, a god-like being that almost takes over their world and reseal her back into the moon. The Black Zetsu, who engineered the entire events of the series, looks to escape to try his plans again, only to be found by Naruto who knocks him into the seal as well to ensure Kaguya won't be freed again.

    Comic Books 
  • Star Wars: Legacy: During the gap between volumes 1 (Cade Skywalker's story) and 2 (Ania Solo's story), the Galactic Alliance, the Empire, and the Jedi Order set up a Triumvirate to serve as a Fictional United Nations to keep the peace between the galaxy's superpowers so that a repeat of the Imperial-Republic War that led to the main conflict of volume 1 can't happen.
    • Also Cade makes sure that Darth Krayt can’t return from the dead again. As he can revive his body with his Sith powers. To ensure he he stays dead, Cade sends his body to Coruscant sun.

    Fan Works 
  • Arc Royale: After the plot-central battle royale involving the summoned alternate Jaune Arc's concludes, the dissatisfied Brother Gods manifest in person and they promptly begin deliberating a new free-for-all war involving the cast. The surviving heroes naturally want none of it after what they've been put through, and they talk the Gods into just sucking up what they got and leaving the planet alone for good.
  • In the second chapter of the Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction Big Sister Bunny, Vanilla begins to sleepwalk and narrowly avoids a bunch of perils (including nearly being run over by a van and almost falling off a building). At the end, Ice decides to keep the bedroom door closed tightly at night so that Vanilla won't be in such danger in case she sleepwalks again.
  • Empire of the Pacific: The inciting incident is that Lilo and Stitch use Jumba's time-traveling board to prevent the accident which killed Lilo's parents, and this creates an Alternate Timeline where Stitch's alternate self is a psychopathic "emperor" dictator. After Lilo and Stitch defeat the Emperor and set history back on its original track, Lilo destroys the time board just to be sure.
  • Game On (based on The Loud House) ends with Lynn promising to never let her aggressive play get to the point where she and her brother Lincoln have as extreme a fight as they did in the story again.
  • In the third chapter of Hatch Ya Later (link here, a Pretty Cure fanfic), Mepple and Mipple's egg is kidnapped by Kabaton. After the egg is saved, Nagisa (who has been looking after the egg) opts to lock her windows and the front door to keep Kabaton from sneaking in again.
  • Jessica: The story's conflict is jumpstarted by Cameron unintentionally cracking his cartridge of Pokémon Yellow, which ends up killing everyone on his Pokémon team, most prominently Jessica the Raichu. When he plays Pokémon Black, the Pikachu he caught reveals herself to be Jessica, and she tears him a new one for his carelessness. Cameron apologizes to her, and she decides to forgive him. At the end, Cameron says that he has not deleted the save file of any of his games since, and he has made sure not to destroy them again so that he will not incur Jessica's wrath.
  • Karmic Backlash: In this Recursive Fanfiction to The Karma of Lies, the whole mess of this duologynote  eventually deconstructs the "Recruit Teenagers with Attitude" trope by putting the blame on the Miraculous holders and Marinette as a Guardian having too much "attitude" and not enough emotional maturity, to the point the Guardians come to take the Miracle Box away in the story's epilogue and make clear there is no way in Hell they are going to allow recruitment standards to become this loose ever again.
  • A Load of Bulk: Lana drinks a chemical she found in Lisa's laboratory, which causes her to become ripped and gives her a shocking change in personality. Later, she nearly dies from the contents of the formula, and she promises herself not to touch anything in Lisa's lab without permission again. Lisa also decides to keep anything particularly dangerous out of reach.
  • Max and Ruby 0004: Subverted at the end. After viewing the disturbing content of the Max and Ruby DVD, the narrator smashes the disc and stuffs the pieces down the sink's drain to avoid having to watch it again. Though nothing unusual happens for a while, he later gets a note from an anonymous source that says, "Death is our only release" (something that had been said in the aforementioned DVD).
  • The Negotiationsverse: In an effort to convert humanity into "peaceful and harmonious" ponies, Princess Celestia starts the Conversion War, which lasts five years and leads to untold amounts of death and destruction on both sides. She is able to do this because of her godlike power and authority as an alicorn. After the war, her student and successor Princess Twilight destroys the Scroll of Ascension to prevent any more alicorns from ever being created, deciding No Man Should Have This Power.
  • NES Godzilla Creepypasta: Played with in the end. Zachary considers destroying the titular hacked Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! game in case Red goes after him again, but he decides not to, as finishing the game had set Melissa's soul free. He decides to sell it online instead, but he advises anyone who buys it to shut the game off if they feel like it's messing with their mind.
  • Null: After Matthew Fields, who has been spearheading Atlas' evil Government Conspiracy and set off the entire plot, is killed, the final chapter reveals that Ironwood, Neo, and Jaune are now working together from the shadows to kill off and purge all the surviving elements of the conspiracy who have escaped exposure, explicitly preventing Fields' co-conspirators from promptly reviving his work and picking up where he left off.
  • Pony POV Series: Nightmare Eclipse, the Big Bad of the Dark World arc, has been keeping the timeline in an endless 1,000-year "Groundhog Day" Loop to punish Discord for all eternity. After she is defeated and the loop is finally broken, one iteration of Rainbow Dash — specifically the one Eclipse brainwashed into Nightmare Manacle — ascends to alicornhood and becomes Princess Fidelitas, the Goddess of Breaking Loops and Cycles, with the power to stop any being like Eclipse from ever coming into existence again.
  • Sonic.exe: Subverted. Kyle advises Tom to destroy the Sonic the Hedgehog disc so that X won't haunt him or anyone else, but Tom is too curious about the game, so he plays it anyway. This results in him being traumatized by the game's violence and it's implied that X comes for him in the end.
  • The War of the Masters: In Pear Shaped, Kanril Eleya expresses a hope that the peace negotiations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire will involve them settling the disputed spinward-rimward border "so that my kids don't have to go through this, too." In the Star Trek setting, the then-current war is at least the fourth time the two superpowers have fought over that part of space.
  • What You Wish For: At the end, Lori burns her sister Lucy's ouija board so that she won't end up summoning another demon. Played with, however, since the story was All Just a Dream so Lucy had never truly summoned a demon. Lori was just trying to play it safe.
  • Wile E. Coyote Lost Episode: The narrator becomes so frightened by the graphic violence of the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner DVD that they crush it and throw it out in the hopes that no one else will watch it. They then warn the audience not to watch the episode if they find it anywhere.

    Films — Animated 
  • Ferngully The Last Rainforest: When a logging outfit starts to clear-cut a pristine forest, they unknowingly release the sealed evil in a tree that is Hexxus, the amorphous embodiment of destruction, desolation, and death. Hexxus takes control of the Leveler and rolls toward Ferngully. It takes almost every sprite and fairy in Ferngully to stop Hexxus and seal him up once more inside a living tree.
  • Heavy Metal 2000: When an ordinary asteroid miner discovers the crystal key to the Chamber of Immortality, he loses his sanity, and leaves a wake of bodies in his path. Although the man himself doesn't enter the chamber, Odin The Mole does, seeking to reclaim his birthright as oppressor of the galaxy. The Hero Julie removes the key, sealing Odin inside. Joke Character Zig takes the key and launches himself into space, where his body becomes indistinguishable from the many other asteroids nearby.
  • The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure: Littlefoot and his friends had unknowingly brought a Sharptooth egg into the Great Valley and attracted its parents to look for it. After Littlefoot let the baby Sharptooth Chomper go back to his parents in the Mysterious Beyond, the adults of the Great Valley sealed the entrance so the Sharpteeth won't come back.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Back to the Future Part III: After Marty had come back to 1985 from the Wild West, the Delorean time machine was hit by a train and broke into a million pieces. Marty couldn't fix it due to the fact that time traveling is dangerous. It also meant that the time machine could never be used again.
  • Blade II: Near the movie's ending, the vampire king Eli Damaskinos reveals he has a tank full of experimental vampire fetuses in his lair because he's been trying to create modified vampires that can walk in sunlight, and his experiments created the Reaper virus which both the heroes and vampires have spent the movie trying to contain. After Blade kills Damaskinos' lieutenant Reinhardt and goes after Damaskinos himself, Whistler goes out of his way to destroy the tank, ensuring that Damaskinos' work can't continue and will die with the villains.
  • Click: After David Newman had experienced what the future might be if he focus more on his job with a universal remote, he goes home and decides to spend time with his family. He received a card from Morty along with the universal remote which he used throughout the movie. David throws the remote in the trash so he can never use it again.
  • Dragonheart: When young prince Einon receives a grave wound during a peasant uprising, a dragon agrees to donate a piece of his heart to magically heal Einon. Sadly, when Einon ascends the throne, he becomes more tyrannical than his father. And because he has a piece of dragon heart in him, Einon becomes almost deathless and nearly invincible. Only a Heroic Sacrifice by the dragon that donated the heart piece can put Einon to rest forever.
  • Dumb and Dumber: At the end of the prequel When Harry Met Lloyd, Lloyd and Harry promise each other not to let another woman jeopardize their friendship again after their relationship nearly comes to blows over Jessica. Subverted, as the previous movie had shown that the same thing would happen again years later when Lloyd became envious of Harry's relationship with Mary.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2: After Harry had successfully defeated Lord Voldemort, he gains possession of the Elder Wand. But he breaks it in half so nobody in the Wizarding World can use it again.
  • Hellboy II: The Golden Army: After defeating Prince Nuada in a duel and claiming the crown that controls the mechanical Golden Army, Hellboy seems momentarily tempted by the power the crown offers; Liz responds by taking the crown from him and melting it with her pyrokinesis, shutting the Army down forever.
  • Attempted by Kirsty Cotton and her boyfriend in the first Hellraiser. After getting rid of Pinhead and his fellow Cenobites, they throw the Lament Configuration into some burning rubble so that no one will ever experience its horrors. Unfortunately, the same hobo that greeted Kirsty earlier in the movie reveals his true demonic form and retrieves the box before flying away.
  • In most of the Jumanji films so far, the titular game is destroyed or otherwise put away in a fashion which the people who dispose of it hope will make this trope happen, but the damned thing is harder to get rid of than that:
    • The first film's prologue has two brothers burying the game deep in the New England woods in the 1880s only for it to be discovered by Alan Parrish in The '60s, and that film ends with Alan and Sarah tossing the game into the river, only for the epilogue to show that it emerged on some beach in the Middle East in 1995.
    • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle starts with Spencer and his unwanted Ragtag Bunch of Misfits discovering the game in a room in their school (which had turned into a videogame cartridge when a previous player decided not to play because it was a tabletop one) and ends with them smashing the cartridge and console with a bowling ball to prevent anybody from playing again.
    • Jumanji: The Next Level begins with Spencer repairing the game because he felt it was the only place where he could be awesome. The film then makes perfectly clear near the end that Jumanji can never be destroyed, with another player unleashing its power.
  • The Mask: Stanley Ipkiss uses a magic mask to become his alter ego "The Mask". It makes him go crazy and gets into trouble with the law. In the end, Stanley throws the mask into the sea so he can never use it again.
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Seeking to preclude SkyNet from ever being created, the protagonists visit Cyberdyne Systems, where they obliterate the place with explosives. Afterward, the only remnants of terminators are 1) the chipset that Dyson had been reverse engineering, 2) the robotic arm of the terminator from the first TheTerminator movie, and 3) the reprogrammed T-800 that has been aiding Sarah and John Connor. The first two pieces are tossed into a steel smelter, and the T-800 makes a Heroic Sacrifice to expunge all traces of terminator technology. Alas, a Stable Time Loop demands that terminators must exist, so SkyNet finds alternate means of coming into existence in future installments.

    Literature 
  • In the 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later tie-in graphic novel 28 Days Later: The Aftermath; the final book ends with Sophie killing Clive, a surviving scientist who helped create the Rage virus, so that what his creation has done to the entire mainland of Great Britain can never happen again. Tragically, Weeks shows that that's what happens, with the film's ending implying that it'll ultimately be even worse and more widespread than the first outbreak that destroyed an entire country.
  • Armadillo Tattletale: Throughout the story, Armadillo uses his Super-Hearing to eavesdrop on conversations and spread slander about others. Eventually, Alligator has had enough of this and tears his ears to shreds so that he won't be able to hear as well, and as such, he cannot listen in on private conversations anymore.
  • In The Anglo/American – Nazi War, once the Allies end World War 2, they become determined to ensure that a conflict of its sheer scale can never happen again. This means permanently dividing Germany into 15 districts, and orbitally bombarding the city of Stettin, killing 275,000 people, because there was an armed bid at reunification within its borders.
  • Arc of a Scythe: At the end of the third book Scythe Faraday activates the failsafe the original Scythes created in case the system got out of hand. The failsafe is a disease that kills random people at regular intervals and it also removes the Scythes' ability to kill people. The series was caused by the Scythedom becoming filled with sadists twisting its ideals so removing their power keeps this from ever becoming a problem again.
  • At the end of Baby's First Train Robbery, the train staff decide to disallow babies on the train, so that Baby Frank, or any other baby, won't steal it again.
  • The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Tales:
    • At the end of "Gustav the Goldfish", the narrator decides never to overfeed Gustav again lest he grow whale-sized again.
    • "Steak for Supper", in which some animals overheard the boy mention having steak for supper and follow him home, ends with the boy deciding never to talk on his way home from school again.
  • In A Bad Case of Stripes, Camilla is too embarrassed to eat lima beans because her classmates hate them. However, when she gets a disease that makes her change shape and colour when people mention things, and the cure is lima beans, she decides to eat them anyway from then on.
  • Captain Underpants: George and Harold made a ton of Captain Underpants comics which some of them made fun of their teachers and a classmate named Melvin Sneedly. It also made the boys hypnotize their mean principal into Captain Underpants and were forced to help him out. At the end of "The Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot", George and Harold quit making Captain Underpants comics due to the fact that the character has caused them enough trouble already. So they created DogMan comics instead.
  • In the kids' book Clayton Parker Really, Really, Really Needs to Pee, Clayton has a Potty Emergency. He then decides to prevent it from happening again by always trying to pee before going on trips.
  • Clifford the Big Red Dog: In "Clifford's Pals", Clifford and several other dogs wander into a construction site. Clifford ends up causing unintentional property damage due to his strength and the rest of the dogs get into other mischief, so they decide to never go near another construction site again.
  • In The Diggingest Dog, the narrator, a dog named Duke, accidentally digs a well and nearly drowns. At the end, he says that he's "careful" now when he digs so he won't dig another well.
  • Emil of Lönneberga: In one story, Emil accidentally gets drunk off expired cherries. This makes his mother very disappointed in him even though it was an accident, partly because he's a child and partly because the family is Lutheran (Lutherans frown on drunkenness). At the end of the story, it notes that because of this incident, Emil became The Teetotaler when he grew up.
  • In A Fish Out of Water, a boy overfeeds his fish Otto, who grows to the size of a whale. At the end, he decides never to overfeed Otto again.
  • Franny K. Stein: Double-subverted in "Frantastic Voyage". Igor becomes too engrossed by the TV to help Franny while she's trapped in his body. When Franny finally escapes (by being belched out), she attempts to destroy the TV, but Igor distracts her by turning on a show about baby spiders. She does like the show, but she tells him not to become too obsessed with watching TV again.
  • The Giver: When the previous Receiver-in-Training applied for Release (read as: death) due to being overwhelmed by the memories given to her, the Community briefly experienced the memories she had received over the course of six weeks. Distressed by the incident, the City Council thereon enforces a new rule saying that Receivers can't apply for Release by the time Jonas is selected to be trained.
  • In Golly Gump Swallowed a Fly, Golly often yawns with his mouth wide open, leading to him accidentally swallowing a fly. After his various attempts to get rid of the fly finally work, he decides to cover his mouth when he yawns from now on.
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Professor Dumbledore had destroyed the Sorcerer's Stone so Lord Voldemort won't use it to become immortal.
  • I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today: In "The Glunk That Got Thunk", the protagonist's sister is very imaginative, but one evening, she imagines a monster called a Glunk, who comes to life. At the end, she agrees never to think up a monster again.
  • Subverted in I Really, Really, Really Need a Wee/to Pee. The story follows a bush baby looking for a place to urinate, and at the end, she decides to never leave the house without ensuring she doesn't need the bathroom so it won't happen again. However, it doesn't work, since the story then ends with her either (depending on the release) needing to poo, or needing to pee again.
  • Zigzagged in Jeremy Fisher. The eponymous anthropomorphic frog tries to fish but narrowly escapes being eaten by a fish. At the end, he decides never to go fishing again, but a later book, Ginger And Pickles, has him trying on galoshes, so maybe he changed his mind. Then again, it's never outright said that he wanted the galoshes to fish.
  • Played with in A Lion in the Meadow. In it, a boy notices a lion in the meadow, but his mother thinks he's "making up stories". She tries to humour him by making up a "story" of her own — that a match box has a dragon in it, which will grow to full size and chase the lion away. However, the story turns out to be true, and there is a dragon. Originally, the story ended with the mother refusing to make any more stories up lest they come true, but later editions omitted this ending since Margaret Mahy feared it would make children afraid to make up stories.
  • Little Golden Books: In The Big Brown Bear, the titular bear sneaks to an old tree for some honey, despite his wife's warnings. He ends up being stung on the nose by a swarm of bees, and he decides to never get too close to that specific tree again.
  • In The Little White Lie, a girl lies, which then leads to a Snowball Lie. At the end of the story, she decides never to lie again (though it's up in the air whether that's true or not since the narrator admits to not believing it).
  • The entire story arc of The Lord of the Rings trilogy involves destroying the One Ring of Power, forged by Sauron to take control of the kings of elves, dwarfs and humans. Sauron's Evil Plan nearly succeeded in giving him absolute mastery over Middle Earth, until King Isildur severed the hand of Sauron in combat, depriving him of the ring. Alas, Isildur could not destroy the ring, and it was lost during an ambush, ultimately lying in a creek bed for centuries. When the One Ring is found, it isn't immediately recognized, but when it is, a party of adventurers is formed to unmake it in the fires of Mount Doom. This done, Sauron's Soul Jar is also destroyed so that he can nevermore threaten Middle Earth.
  • Downplayed at the end of Monsters Eat Whiny Children. When two kids named Henry and Eve go through a phase where they whine a lot, some monsters who specifically look for the whiniest kids to eat kidnap them and try to cook them. Henry and Eve escape, and the narration says that they usually never whined again, but still did on occasion.
  • In "The Repairman" by Harry Harrison, a primitive race that had a hyperspace beacon on their planet have been worshipping it as part of their religion and had accidentally turned it off. After the narrator fixes it, they attempt to keep him in as a caretaker. He uses the opportunity to weld the door shut and state that the gods have forbidden further entry to anyone for such disrespect.
  • Sam Pig: In one episode, Sam falls unnoticed into a steamed pudding being cooked by the Irish Cook, who put some amulets into it for good luck. When Sam escapes and is mistaken for a leprechaun, the Irish Cook (who never finds out that Sam isn't a leprechaun) decides she will never put an amulet into a pudding again.
  • In the Serendipity Books book Feather Fin, the titular fish Feather Fin is curious about what's above the sea, despite his mother's warnings. He crawls onto the shore and realizes too late that, as a fish, he can't breathe oxygen, and he nearly suffocates until a wave pushes him back into the ocean. Afterwards, he vows never to go to the surface again.
  • Subverted in The Silmarillion. The War of Wrath between the Valar and the fallen Valar turned Destroyer Deity Morgoth is immensely destructive with countless dead, including sinking the continent of Beleriand beneath the sea. As a result, the Valar decide to no longer use their power to directly intervene in the war against evil to prevent such destruction in the future. Subverted in that, unfortunately, this makes things all the more difficult when one of Morgoth's lieutenants creates problems down the line.
  • In Snot Stew, Kikki and Toby hear their owners' kids having contradicting arguments, so they decide to do the same thing and think it's a game called "snot stew". Toby goes too far with it and steals Kikki's food, and he ends up getting stuck in the fence due to his Balloon Belly. His tail gets torn off by a vicious dog named Butch, so he and Kikki promise each other not to play "snot stew" afterwards to keep an incident like that from occurring again.
  • Struwwelpeter: In The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb, a boy is a frequent thumb-sucker. His mother hires a tailor to cut his thumbs off with shears so that he'll never be able to suck them again.
  • In Thomas's Snowsuit, a Bratty Half-Pint named Thomas fights whoever tries to put him in his snowsuit. At the end, his principal moves to a country where it doesn't snow, so that he won't ever have to fight with any kids over snowsuits again.
  • In the children's book The Tiger Who Came to Tea, a tiger comes over and eats all the food in the house. The family later buys a can of "tiger food" in case he comes back, so he'll eat that instead. It turns out to be pointless, however, since he never does come back.
  • In Truth Farts, a boy named Billy lies that he didn't eat a blueberry pie, only to get busted when he farts and his fart smells of blueberries. He swears to never lie again lest another "truth fart" happen.
  • Warrior Cats:
    • The cat possessing Bramblestar spends the seventh arc, The Broken Code, using the warrior code to tyrannically persecute those who break it and getting away with it because he is believed to be the Clan leader, and the Code says the leader's word has the force of law. He especially targets cats who had forbidden lovers in other Clans, which includes two of the arc's main characters, Bristlefrost and Rootspring. The difficulty of making an illegal relationship work delays the two from getting together, and in the end Bristlefrost dies before they have a chance. The arc ends with the Clans changing the Code to avoid such a thing happening again. Now leaders can be deposed if enough of the Clan votes to have this happen, and there is a legal way for cross-Clan lovers to switch Clans and be accepted into a new one.
    • In Code of the Clans, One-Eye and Dappletail nab some fish from RiverClan out of curiosity. Hailstar and Pinestar try to talk them out of it, but they stubbornly insist on trying it. The two find out too late that they can't stand the taste of fish and beg the higher-ups not to make them finish it. After that, they decide never to eat fish again.
  • In When I Chopped My Toe, a boy injures his toe while chopping wood barefoot. At the end, he says that he wears boots now when he chops wood so it won't happen again.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Zig-Zagged in Babylon 5. The eponymous Space Station was built to host a Fictional United Nations to prevent a repeat of the apocalyptic Earth-Minbari War by providing a setting for the nations of The 'Verse to hash out disputes peacefully. It ultimately is agreed to have failed by the end of season 2, with the reconquest of the Narn Regime by the Centauri Republic, but The Alliance against the Shadows and the growing authoritarianism in the Earth Alliance allows the protagonists to reforge the Babylon 5 Advisory Council into the more effective Interstellar Alliance, which isn't able to completely end war but is able to police it. This trope figures heavily into the resolution of the Shadow War arc. By refusing to choose a side in the millennia-long conflicts between two races of Abusive Precursors, and evicting both races from the galaxy for their bad cosmic parenting, a future flare-up of these Precursors' tensions is prevented once and for all.
  • The Brittas Empire: In "New Generations", Carole gives birth, but thanks to Brittas, she ends up being tended to in a sauna by a vet. A series later, in "The Stuff of Dreams", Helen, remembering this incident, asks Laura to take her to the hospital for when she gives birth, figuring that with Brittas out of the way, she would get a normal delivery. Of course, Brittas ends up driving her and she ends up giving birth in the middle of the high street anyway.
  • This is the focus of the later parts of Chernobyl, with the main characters figuring out what exactly caused the accident and trying to tell everyone about it to prevent it from happening again, though they are reluctant to do this due to personal consequences of defying the official government line.
  • CSI: NY: In "Command+P", a young man develops a way to 3-d print a working handgun and sets up a meeting in a bar with an investor named Andy Stein. Unfortunately he encounters a guy named Andy Lewis first, doesn't verify his last name and launches into his spiel. Lewis follows him home, shoots him with the prototype, and steals the printer and software. Later he fatally shoots someone else with it. The investigators are now faced with two shooting deaths without ballistics, serial numbers, etc. After they figure it out and confiscate everything, Mac tells Jo that once the trial is over, they'll send the printer to a local university and keep the software locked up in evidence in hopes that no one else will start printing unlicensed, untraceable guns at home.
  • The Expanse: At the end of Season 6, James Holden uses Loophole Abuse to put Camina Drummer in a legitimate position of power within the new Earth-Mars-Belter coalition, whereas Avasarala wanted to maintain Drummer as a sympathetic figurehead to quell any further Belter rebellions. Holden points out that the "Inners" will have to give the Belters some real concessions in the future, as their constant abuse of the Belt colonies has already resulted in one devastating interplanetary war and gave terrorist warlords like Marco Inaros the ability to gain so many supporters.
  • M*A*S*H: Discussed and Downplayed. In one episode, the 4077 is desperate to get ahold of some penicillin, as their supply was stolen. Father Mulcahy decides to arrange a swap on the Black Market and accepts whatever others are willing to donate to obtain the medicine. Maj. Winchester is cajoled into donating some of his fine wine but insists on coming along to try and talk the Black Marketeers into a lower price. He ends up insulting them, is stripped down to his long underwear, and they nearly leave empty-handed, until Mulcahy realizes the Black Market thugs be distracted with drinking the wine they acquired. He and Winchester succeed in stealing the needed penicillin. Col. Potter is impressed that Mulcahy took Winchester along.
    Mulchahy: Having him along was a real...blessing. And God willing, I'll never be blessed with him again.
  • Sesame Street:
    • In one song, the main character kisses a "blueberry-beaked budgie", but then that leads to him contracting a strange disease that makes him lethargic and grow blueberries on his head. The song ends with him refusing to kiss any more fruit-themed animals.
    • In one skit, a bear, after being chased by a swarm of bees, decides to never mess with bees again.
    • Subverted. One episode involves Abby casting a spell on Elmo and Zoe, causing a lot of hats to stack on their heads, which leads to total chaos. At the end of the episode, she promises never to use the spell again, but this promise doesn't work since she accidentally casts it.
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
      • In "Skin Of Evil", after they save Troi from Armus, the Enterprise destroys the wrecked shuttlecraft and puts a beacon in orbit warning all ships to stay away from Vagra II.
      • In "Clues", aliens erase a day from the crew's memory so they won't find out about their existence. However, it doesn't work since the crew notices some things are out of place (Crusher's moss displays a day's worth of growth, Troi is dizzy and feels her reflection isn't herself, and Worf's wrist is injured). The crew decides to let the aliens wipe their memories a second time, but this time, ensure no clues are left behind so the conflict won't start again.
      • In "Schisms", some sensor modifications attract aliens from another dimension. Once they're dealt with, Geordi says that they'll change the modifications to not interact with that particular dimension again.
      • At the end of "Descent", Data dismantles Lore, his Evil Twin, so that he can no longer do any damage.
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • Star Trek: Voyager: In "Memorial", the Voyager crew keep getting PTSD-like symptoms, which turn out to be because of a device intended to remind some aliens of a war (in hopes of preventing another war). At the end, Janeway decides to put up a warning near the device so that no other people will go too near and have the mental tampering.
    • Star Trek: Discovery: After a season is spent fighting a time traveling Artificial Intelligence that came from the future to destroy all sentient life, it is decided that the only way to avoid a repeat is to completely erase all knowledge of the event. This includes destroying all references to the Klingon time crystals, the time travel capable suit created by the Starfleet's Section 31, declaring the USS Discovery destroyed in battle against a rogue Section 31 Captain, removing all references to Commander Michael Burnham to the point that Spock's future Captain and crew mates will never even know she existed, and swearing any one with knowledge of the event to secrecy upon penalty of death for treason if they ever mention the event again.

    Multi-Media Franchises 
  • Doctor Who and the Krikkitmennote  revolves around a resurgence of the legendary Krikkitmen, killer androids from the planet Krikkit, whose population became a race of absolute xenophobes once they find out they are not alone in the universe. After a destructive war that threatened the whole of the Universe, the Time Lords finally had enough of it and locked the planet Krikkit in a Time Lock, meanwhile sealing the entirety of the Krikkitmen away on the Time Lord prison planet of Shada, which was in another dimension accessible only by use of the Ancient and Worshipful Law of Gallifrey. Why weren't they dismantled? However, the Time Lords apparently missed a few, who are trying to release Krikkit and the Krikkitmen and get the omnicide back on track.
  • Transformers:
    • The Transformers (Marvel):
      • After the devastation left in the aftermath of the arrival of the Transformers on Nebulos, the Nebulans developed a formula that poisoned all their fuel sources in order to create a hostile environment for any Transformers who came calling. The Decepticons Darkwing and Dreadwind ground to a halt due to this poisoning, and a group of Autobots led by Goldbug who came to Nebulos hoping to revive Optimus Prime likewise found themselves on the brink.
      • In the aftermath of the UK-exclusive "Time Wars" storyline (where space and time almost collapsed due to the presence of Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge, exacerbated by Cyclonus dying more than twenty years before he was even created), both Future Autobots and Decepticons resolve to destroy all their time machines in order to prevent even the remotest chance of such a catastrophe happening again.
    • Beast Wars:
      • In the episode "Chain Of Command", Optimus Primal was captured by the Predacons and the remaining Maximals were hobbled by the fact that they don't have an actual plan for this situation. An attempt at voting for a new leader failed due to being split down the middle, until Optimus managed to send a message putting Rattrap in charge. In the aftermath, the Maximals organised a proper chain of command in order to prevent such a blunder from happening again.
      • Invoked in the backstory of Rampage. He was created by the Maximal Elders in an attempt to duplicate the immortal Spark of Starscream note . They succeeded... but the resulting creature (codenamed Protoform X) was a murderous maniac who, among other things, massacred an entire space colony and ate some of his victims. After he was finally captured by Depth Charge, the Elders disposed of all the project's data (even going so far as to completely seal up Starscream's records so no one would ever try to duplicate his immortality again) and tasked Optimus Primal with dumping X on some dead world far from any civilisation. This had some unintended results: due to Primal and his crew getting drawn into the Beast Wars, Megatron was able to forcibly recruit X into his ranks. Even more unexpected was when Starscream himself manifested during the conflict, and the fact that the Maximals had no idea who he was due to his records being sealed put them at a huge disadvantage. Luckily, former Predacon Dinobot was more familiar with Starscream thanks to the Predacons not sealing their records.
    • Beast Wars Neo: It's eventually revealed that some time after Unicron's original defeat in Transformers: The Movie, both Autobots and Decepticons under Optimus Prime and Galvatron respectively called a truce to move his remains to a place called the Triple Z Point. note  The Legends manga further expands on these events: when Unicron's head was brought to the Triple Z Point where much of the wreckage of his original body had already been moved, his worshippers arrived and sacrificed themselves en masse to recreate his physical body, resulting in a desperate battle between the combined Autobot-Decepticon army and the reforming Unicron. In the aftermath, not only was Unicron's life force spread out at random throughout the galaxy and his remains left to rot, both sides agreed that the Triple Z Point was completely off limits out of fear that if Unicron revived once, he might do so again. It's telling that even by the time of Neo (several thousand years after the events of The Movie), the Triple Z Point has been left undisturbed. That's how terrified everyone was of the possibility of Unicron reviving.
    • Transformers: The War Within: The Dark Ages: Taking place during a time period when both Optimus Prime and Megatron have gone missing and the Autobot and Decepticon armies have fractured into multiple smaller factions, the mysterious and nigh-unstoppable Transformer only known as The Fallen attacks and kidnaps four Transformers (Hot Spot, Grimlock, Jetfire, and Blitzwing) as part of some sort of plot. He also recruits the Chaos Trinity, a trio of Transformers who believe in magic, to his cause by granting them actual powers. In the aftermath of the Fallen's defeat (brought about by a literal Deus ex Machina as the Creator God of the Transformers briefly manifested and annihilated him with a gesture), the various factions place several locks on the seal he was trying to open to ensure no one faction would ever be able to try to finish the job.
    • Invoked in the backstory of Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen during the conflict between the Dynasty of Primes and their wayward brother The Fallen. Before engaging The Fallen, they destroyed his servants first, then sealed up his Star Harvester using the Matrix of Leadership, and only then tried to face him directly. Their intent was to ensure that after they defeated him, they'd be able to safely dismantle the Star Harvester at their leisure. However, The Fallen had secretly powered himself up beforehand, and what was meant to be this trope wound up becoming a Heroic Sacrifice Taking You with Me on the part of the Primes that left The Fallen a Sealed Evil in a Can.
    • Transformers (2019): Two completely separate attempts at doing this have repercussions by the time of the series' events.
      • The first was a rampage by a being known as the Abomination, created when a group of Cybertronians happened upon the Enigma of Combination, an ancient artifact that allowed them to combine into a gestalt entity. This monster rampaged across the planet, guzzling precious Energon until finally being defeated by Dai Atlas and his comrades. The resulting Energon shortage was so dire that starvation became a genuine danger, and in the aftermath, the Autobots sought to seal away the Enigma only to discover it had already vanished in the chaos.
      • The more serious one was the War of the Threefold Spark, brought about by Exxarchon. He was a respected and well-loved figure who travelled extensively but was corrupted by entities unknown into a twisted monster with the ability to take over other Cybertronians' bodies, snuffing their Sparks out in the process note . Autobot leader Nominus Prime felt that Exxarchon had been twisted by those angry at Cybertron's aggressive expansion, which was backed by their gigantic Titans (as well as the necessity of taking over new worlds to get enough resources to keep the Titans fueled and in working order). To prevent such a devastating war from happening again, he put a halt to colonial expansion, repurposed the Titans as a defense-only fleet, had as many deadly weapons as he could find sealed up, and "encouraged" troublesome or dangerous individuals to find their way in the colonies rather than remain on Cybertron itself. By the time the series begins, while it's acknowledged that the Nominus Edict was absolutely the right call at the time, several characters warn that it no longer serves a purpose other than stifling Cybertronians as a whole, culminating in the Ascenticon political party outright launching a coup.

    Music 
  • In the Christmas song "I'm Getting Nuttin' for Christmas", a little boy realises that after doing various naughty things, he will get nothing for Christmas. He promises to be good next year so he'll get presents.

    Poetry 
  • In the Nursery Rhyme "Dr. Foster", the eponymous doctor ends up deciding never to return to the place where he stepped in a waist-deep puddle, lest it happen again.
  • "Ella McStumping" concerns a girl who jumps from a building just for kicks. When she gets severely injured and nearly dies, she decides to give up jumping entirely.

    Print Media 
  • Doctor Who Magazine: In "Thinktwice", the Doctor infiltrates the titular inter-galactic prison which is being run by a mad doctor, who removes the inmates' memories of who they are until they're nothing more than moaning, braindead vegetables; feeding their minds to eldritch abominations which grow impatient and go on the rampage. At the climax, the Doctor tells one of the prison staff that he has to ensure Thinktwice is closed down and that the intergalactic authorities know what's happened so that the mad doctor can never repeat his crimes again.

    Video Games 
  • Alien: Isolation: Henry Marlow, the person who originally found the Xenomorph and accidentally brought it to Sevastopol station, becomes obsessed with destroying all trace and records of the creature by any means necessary. He tries to cause the entire station to self-destruct and take himself, Amanda Ripley, and any other survivors with him so that there could be no chance of anyone else learning about the creatures or where they come from. In his mind, the only way to prevent mankind's inevitable extinction at the hands of such monsters is to make it impossible for humanity ever come in contact with them ever again. Unfortunately for Marlow, for all of his efforts Weyland-Yutani already knows of the xenomorph and will just continue to try to acquire a specimen in the future, with the same bloody results.
  • Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal have the Doom Slayer, a being quite feared for being a One-Man Army with a relentless hatred towards demonkind and all who ally with them. At the beginning of 2016, he's freed from his shackles and returns, in a very critical time, to his previous "task" after the UAC screws quite a lot with using Argent Energy as a fuel source. The fact that he's the Doomguy from the original Doom, Doom II, and Doom 64 might help with this notion. At the end of the The Ancient Gods, Part II DLC for Eternal, he kills Davoth, the Dark Lord and Creator of all creation, however since the Doom Slayer's lifeforce is tied to Davoth's own lifeforce, he also falls to the floor and is enclosed in the coffin again. The quote at the beginning of 2016 and end of The Ancient Gods Part II firmly establishes how much of a desperate measure his freeing was:
    Corrax Entry 7:17: "May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again."
  • This forms the bulk of Final Fantasy X's endgame: the characters spend the first two-thirds or so of the story trying to defeat Eldritch Abomination Sin the traditional way, knowing that it's likely to come back again in ten years like it always does. However, at that point, they learn the reason why it always comes back and switch gears into searching for a way to defeat it for good.
  • Final Fantasy XIV:
    • This is invoked by Alexander itself at the end of the Alexander raid series. Only one instance of a primal can be summoned at a time, preventing multiple factions from summoning the same primal. With full knowledge of this, Alexander suspends itself in a single moment in time after trapping itself in a Stable Time Loop, ensuring that Alexander can never be summoned again to threaten the world with its potential to drain the land dry of aether.
    • Nidhogg's eyes are used as a source of aether to summon the primal Shinryu, a being that threatens to bring about another Calamity with its sheer potential for destruction. After the events of Stormblood, Estinien destroys eyes with his lance at the site of Shinryu's demise, ensuring that they can never be used for evil again.
    • In the later patches of Shadowbringers, Merlwyb sees the opportunity to end Limsa Lominsa's Forever War with the Kobolds and the Sahagin when Alisaie and G'raha develop a cure for tempering. Now able to negotiate with the leaders of both tribes, Merlwyb swears to end the feud and is willing to let patriarch Za Da shoot her if it means another peace treaty can be signed. This approach soon extends to the rest of the city-states, who offer reconciliation and peace to end the constant cycle of war and primal summoning. By the end of Shadowbringers, executive leaders representing each of the tribes arrive in Ala Mhigo to pledge their support for the Grand Company of Eorzea. This cements their new friendship with the city-states and marks the end of regular primal summoning in Eorzea.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, the player character gets the option to sacrifice themselves to permanently destroy Grima, instead of going through with having Chrom put the creature to sleep for a thousand years.
  • Kingdom Hearts II: In the second visit to Port Royal, the heroes have to help Jack Sparrow break the curse of the Aztec gold once again. After taking out the Heartless and reclaiming the treasure, they all throw the chest into the sea so no one will claim it again.
  • King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella: Princess Rosella gets captured by the minions of the evil fairy Lolotte. One item Rosella must fetch to satisfy Lolotte is Pandora's Box, hidden in a mountain tomb. Once the evil fairy is defeated, Rosella returns Pandora's Box (unopened) to the tomb. There, she locks the door with the key, then kicks that key under the door, precluding anyone from opening that door again. Smart girl.
  • Mass Effect 3's ultimate Series Goal is to permanently end the Eternal Recurrence of the destruction of galactic civilization by the Reapers.
  • Persona 4: This is the primary motivation behind the Investigation Team's efforts to clear the final dungeon in the True Ending. With Izanami revealed as the one who set the events of the game in motion, as long as she's still around then the protagonists know that she'll just potentially do it all again unless dealt with permanently.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations: After Dahlia Hawthorne is exorcised near the end of the final trial, everyone present agrees that Dahlia must never be summoned again.
  • Starcraft II: Following the three main campaigns, Amon has been defeated, his Custom-Built Host disintegrated, and his Hive Mind destroyed — but because his species, the Xel'Naga, is Only Killable In The Void Between Universes he is still alive. When it becomes clear that Amon will return eventually, though likely not in the main characters' lifetimes, they decide to go the extra mile and mount an assault on Amon within The Void, just to make sure he is Killed Off for Real.
    Raynor: "We can't just kick this can down the road."

    Web Original 

    Web Video 
  • Critical Role: Campaign Two: Downplayed. Though it's one of many dilemmas, Trent's machinations in creating the Volstruckers horribly traumatized Caleb and he is a powerful antagonistic force against the Mighty Nein. In the end, they have him incarcerated and unable to use his magic, ensuring he may never harm any innocents ever again. Furthermore, Beau and Caleb keep an eye on the remaining member of the Cerberus Council, Ludinus, to prevent more strife. Subverted as of Campaign Three, as their efforts largely fail to stop Ludinus' plans.
  • Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: The very first episode ends with the cast being told to "get creative" by the Notebook, which spirals into a nightmarish scene of the puppet cast being replaced with people in costumes doing creepy things, while cuts to the real cast reveal them to be having seizures. At the very end, Notebook declares, "Now let's all agree, to never be creative again", seemingly having realized just how bad of an idea it was to "get creative."

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • At the end of a war, typically either both sides reach a peace settlement and exchange some territories and resources or one side is completely defeated and absorbed by the victor. Sometimes, the latter only happens after several wars of the former type, such that total victory over the enemy becomes an explicit means to avoid another war:
    • After three wars between the Romans and the Carthaginians, including one in which Rome itself was nearly conquered by Hannibal Barca, Rome finally ended the cycle by killing or enslaving Carthage's entire population, and later rebuilding it as a Roman city. Allegedly the Romans even salted the earth around the city, but this is apocryphal.
    • Following the French Revolution, Napoleonic France engaged in numerous wars with the other powers of Europe, gradually extending its control over the continent until they finally overreached by fighting a guerrilla war in Spain and losing most of their army in Russia. By 1814, the anti-French coalition was determined to occupy France itself to explicitly remove Napoleon from power and restore the Bourbons to the throne. Napoleon briefly returned to rule for another 100 days but was dethroned and exiled again.
      • In addition, the Congress of Vienna implemented a complex series of diplomatic checks and balances that were designed to prevent another great power conflict that could cause as much death and destruction as the Napoleonic Wars did. While the great European powers were unable to prevent war entirely, they were able to prevent smaller-scale struggles from ballooning to involve more than one great power in the region that could escalate. This period of relative peace lasted for almost a full 100 years, only ending with the outbreak of World War I.
    • The Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I is often accused of laying the groundwork for World War II by creating numerous grievances among both the victors and the vanquished while also leaving Germany in a position to rebuild their empire. The armistice also helped spread the "Stab in the Back" myth that Germany had not been defeated in the field but simply betrayed by their government.note  During WWII, the Allies demanded nothing less than unconditional surrendernote  and occupied and de-Nazified Germany so they wouldn't have to deal with a resurgent Fourth Reich ever again.
  • In the early 1980s, General Motors' Cadillac division tried to create an entry-level model called the Cimarron by applying Cadillac badging and styling to the J platform series of compacts. (The J platform also included the Chevrolet Cavalier, Pontiac Sunbird, Buick Skyhawk, and Oldsmobile Firenza in North America, and the Opel Ascona, Vauxhall Cavalier, and Holden Camira elsewhere.) The Cimarron was seen as a poor seller that damaged Cadillac's reputation. General Motors' product designer reportedly has a picture of it in his office with the caption "Lest we forget".
  • This is the objective of air crash investigations, as depicted in documentaries like Mayday: the primary objective of the investigation is to identify the cause of the crash and see what actions can be taken to prevent a reoccurrence. While issues like human error or unexpected weather are outside of manufacturer or airline control, technical flaws and oversights aren't. Examples of this include reinforcing certain parts of the airframe (e.g. to prevent doors being torn open in flight), adjusting training procedures (e.g. so an aircrew works as a team rather than a captain being a dictator), or changing rules and regulations (e.g. ion lithium batteries are no longer allowed to be transported in cargo and must be hand-carried).

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