Trope Talk thread

For Want Of A Nail is supposed to be for when a small thing causes a big change to the world (for want of a nail, the kingdom was lost). Usage sample of 100 wicks at Sandbox.For Want Of A Wick Check shows that it is basically used to describe any change, whether it's a small tweak, results in a major deviation, a fanfic premise or a canon multiverse, a consequential plot device, or just the audience speculating. A great many wicks are also 'canon divergence fanfic' which is Alternate Universe Fic, several more are 'here is everything this fanfic did differently' rather than describing a single change, and a significant number facilitate Speculative Troping ("here's what I think would have happened if...").

Results

• A small tweak that explicitly leads to a drastically changed AU: (28 fanfic premise + 10 canon examples) = 38/100
• Describes a different AU in general terms without explaining any 'nail': 3/100
• A consequential event/plot twist that doesn't involve AU: 13/100
• The thing that starts the plot (Inciting Incident): 4/100
• Lists out any differences from the "canon/real world": (18 fanon + 1 canon) = 19/100
• Speculation on alternative story paths: 10/100
• Tropes real life: 2/100
• ZCE/other/unsorted: 11/100

I think the work presenting us a consequential alternative and a fan coming up with one are two very different things. My proposed solution:

• Split Canon Divergence Fic, for when a fanfic deviates from canon at a certain point, resulting in a changed outcome. It would be a subtrope of Alternate Universe Fic (and is already mentioned there). Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence on AO3 to prove that it's a legitimate phenomenon. There are 28 examples in the wick check, which would be enough to make it directly through TRS rather than TLP.
  • Concern: Would this count Alternate History examples?
• Disambiguate For Want Of A Nail between Butterfly of Doom, Point of Divergence (the "nail"), Split Timelines Plot (where jumping back and forth from the two outcomes of the 'nail' is the premise) and What If?. Remove Speculative Troping / WMG entirely.
• I am not sure if there is room for the original meaning ("a small change has disproportionately consequential ripple effects in the universe"). I like it, but it may be already covered by the other tropes in the disambiguation. But if not, we could also split it off.

Fanwork Examples (Including where the 'canon' is our history)

1. Characters.Make A Good Mega Man Level Contest: Word of God states that the events of the Mega Man X series onward are no longer possible in the MaGMML continuity due to the original Zero prototype breaking down.
2. CodeGeassThePreparedRebellion.Tropes J To P, Psycho Lesbian entry: Triple(?) Subverted with Nina Einstein. For Want Of A Nail made it so she doesn't fall for Euphemia like in canon, thus precluding her Roaring Rampage of Revenge from happening. She still becomes fairly obsessed with her new Love Interest — Celesta Crossfield (C.C.) — regardless. However Nina learns to channel her feelings in a much more constructive manner by virtue of becoming C.C.'s sub, which ironically seems to keep the "psycho" part of the trope out of the equation.
3. EngineeredHeroics.Fan Works: * Scarlet Lady: Chloe already has a tendency to create akumas with her bullying and gross entitlement. In a world where she became Scarlet Lady after stealing the Ladybug earrings out of Marinette's purse before she had a chance to meet Tikki, she continues to be just as cruel — and while locking Juleka in the bathroom, gloats to herself that she hopes Juleka gets akumatized, purely so that she can 'show off' while humiliating her further. It ends up backfiring on her when Reflekta shows up when she's in the middle of confronting Marinette.
4. Fanfic.A Cold Calculus: The "Nail" of this story is that both Nunnally and Marianne die in the "terrorist attack", prompting Lelouch to despair and kill himself much to Euphemia's dismay after earlier asking her sister to keep him safe. This prompts her to change her outlook and direction in life.
5. Fanfic.An Alchemist Abroad:
   • The Plantars meet Frobo in the abandoned factory, and though his body is destroyed when the factory self destructs, his head is intact and salvaged by Polly. This leads her to studying robotics much earlier than in canon.
   • Gardenton is introduced much earlier and its citizens, especially Horace, act as a cult regarding their love of plants. They try to kill Marcy and Sprig to acquire the mind control spores Marcy has and she sets their crops on fire so she and the Plantars can escape.
   • Due to being captured by a cult that knows of it, Sasha learns of the prophecy much earlier than canon.
   • Since she was with Valeriana instead of going to Newtopia, Anne met with Mother Olm and learned of the prophecy, the temples, and the danger Andrias represents.
6. Fanfic.Astra Inclinant: This is an oversimplification, but simply because Eve chose to stay at home and only went out into the forest with Adam in response to Meta's cry, the entire premise of the Evillious Chronicles is turned on its head: the Demons of Sin are now the Angels of Virtue, and Irina has become our Vessel-gathering protagonist with a certain clockwork bluebird acting as the overarching villain.+
7. Fanfic.ByAnyOtherName: Mo Xuanyu doing the summoning ritual far too soon causes a disoriented Wei Wuxian to flee right in Jiang Cheng's arms, and everything unravels from there.
8. Fanfic.Come Alive: A For Want Of A Nail fic[...] Dick went to Infinity Island on a mission to rescue three aspiring heroes. He never expected such circumstances leading him to return with two additional bats. None of them did. In which the story take a sharp turn right before Rescue Op's ending, for the greatest happiness of the Batclan.
9. Fanfic.Kaedehara Kazuhas Foolproof Guide: "is a For Want Of A Nail Genshin Impact fanfic [...] Instead of abandoning her prototype puppet in the Shakkei Pavilion, the Electro Archon decides to put them in an unused room of her palace and completely forgets about their existence.... Continues to describe premise including details changed
10. Fanfic.Persona 4 Silver Blue: The cataclysm for this whole Alternate Universe that made it diverge from the canon universe is unknown, but we know that it’s something that happened before the start of the story that dramatically altered the course of events, thus not only waking up Labrys sooner than in canon, but also ensuring that she would take Yu’s place and move in to Inaba, and the rest is history. Unknown, but it's...a nail
11. Fanfic.Relic Of The Future: A constant source of concern for Jaune, as even his smallest interactions with the past has the potential to change the future in ways he can't predict. Eventually he learns to accept this as a unavoidable fact of his life and be content with doing his best to make a better future despite how his foreknowledge becomes increasingly useless. One such example is him selling a scroll to a technologically adept merchant, happening literally the first day he finds civilization after coming back in time. His scroll is from twelve years in the future, and he finds later that the man used the tech to start his own communications company, Jaune's on the board of directors, and he's a millionaire. Truncated for length, multiple examples of this sort
12. Fanfic.Robb Returns: The story is pretty much made of this. Robb actually lampshades it - showing his father what happened in the original timeline led Eddard to ask his bannermen about the Others, so Greatjon checked on the Hearthstone and brought it to Winterfell, where the stone is used to call for help from the South. Domeric Bolton never meets his half-brother Ramsay, because he is sent to Winterfell by his father and then becomes betrothed to Sansa while Ramsay meets a grisly death of his own courtesy of the Old Gods Balancing Death's Books for Robb's return.. Jon Arryn is not poisoned - and sends his son to foster with Ned. Truncated for length but the changes to timeline are explained by the 'nail' in the first sentence
13. Fanfic.The Demon And The Dead Man: For Want Of A Nail: Due to Naruto meeting Izuna they:
    • 1) Graduate early and become Genin six years earlier than canon.
    • 2) Know other Uchiha before the Massacre.
    • 3) Stop Mizuki's Face–Heel Turn by Naruto giving him a sympathetic ear.
14. Fanfic.The Master Of Death: Without having to kill Justin himself, Ebenezar recognising and taking him in directly and having Elaine with him, Dresden is somewhat better adjusted and gets along better with SI, having opened up to Murphy about the White Council.
15. FanficRecs.Naruto For Want Of A Nail Fics: For Want Of A Nail fics, A story in which one small change has a ripple effect, resulting in massive changes.
16. Fanfic.You Are My Sweetest Downfall: Anne is spared the executioner's block thanks to being diagnosed as pregnant, with Henry opting just to exile her from court instead. This leads to Anne giving birth to four sons, each of whom are obviously his. This causes a cascade of changes [...] the course of history is changed radically. Her firstborn George is the one to succeed Henry as King, her second oldest son Mark is made the King Consort to Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth ends up becoming the Queen of France instead of the Queen of England. Truncated for length but majorly changed Tudor England
17. GenocideBackfire.Fan Works: in Still Stand in the Sun: the Fire Nation's efforts to round up all of the Southern Tribe's waterbenders was more successful here, but ultimately resulted in creating two bloodbenders who have escaped captivity.
18. Headscratchers.Embers Vathara: The first one-shot was "what if Zuko hadn't stolen that ostrich-horse in early season two?" It wasn't until the story progressed that it developed the massive canon-contradicting backstory. If she had written the story as an full-blown Alternate Universe from the start, people would have a lot less trouble with it.
19. Literature.Down To A Sunless Sea: Discussed by John and Jonah when they note the series of events that happened to introduce John to Jonah and put John on a plane out of America at just the right time.
20. Literature.Fight And Be Right: The Point of Divergence is simply that a maid doesn't find a letter in a desk that exposed Randolph to a scandal which delayed his political ascendancy in our timeline.
21. Literature.Keynes Cruisers: : This trope plays a heavy role in the story, as it was started by one.
    • The initial POD is this as the United States Congress, instead of trying to invest in the WPA, decides to follow the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and invest more money into projects to help the economy get out of the Great Recession, which included a expansion of the United States Navy. Truncated for length but majorly changed WWII
22. Literature.No Spanish Civil War In 1936: All of this because someone answered a letter that went unanswered in our timeline.
23. Literature.The Ink Black Heart (Asshole Victim entry): ...Strike himself seems to think this. In the final scene, he laments about how Morehouse might still be alive if For Want Of A Nail hadn’t kept the killer from being exposed earlier, but he doesn't say the same thing about Inigo. In-universe musing
24. Main.Boomerang Bigot (BioShock Infinite entry): Booker DeWitt is part-Native American, but this did nothing to stop him from massacring Native Americans at Wounded Knee, and it's heavily implied that he was particularly zealous in doing so because rumors about his heritage had started circulating. His actions at Wounded Knee left him wracked with guilt, with his response to that guilt being the point where the timeline splits; the Booker you play as grappled with his emotions and ultimately overcame (the racial elements of) his self-hatred, while an alternate Booker doubled-down on the racism and became a self-righteous Knight Templar... who would later reinvent himself as Zachary Hale Comstock.
25. Main.Secret Chaser: * Leave for Mendeleiev:
    • Alya is determined to figure out Ladybug's Secret Identity, heedless of how this might screw over the young superheroine. One of her primary defenses for her behavior is that "most American superheroes" have revealed themselves; therefore, she insists that Ladybug should do the same... ignoring how most does not equal ALL. Since they aren't classmates or friends here, Marinette regards her as an incredibly dangerous and reckless Wild Card who does not care what impact such a reveal would have, so long as she gets her story.
26. VideoGame.Super Robot Wars Original Generation (Game Mod entry): "Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2 Ver. A", a heavily-modified Original Generation 2 which explores what would have happened if Axel Almer had gotten amnesia and aligned with the heroes. Deviations from canon include characters starting off with different mecha, additional Leitmotifs to pre-existing characters and a change to the Final Boss.
27. Webcomic.Ask White Pearl And Steven Almost Anything: Unlike with canon, where Lapis Lazuli left on good terms with Steven, here his miscommunication has her leave with betrayal and not on good terms. If anything, his attempts to stop her causing harm only exacerbate Lapis' trauma and fears of being trapped again, and make it unlikely that she'll want to help Steven in the future. Sure enough, her next appearance has her a much more willing opponent of the Crystal Gems than in canon. Season 4, Episode 6 (part 2) reveals that the lynchpin for how the timeline altered from canon is that Greg went to Empire City and didn't stay in Beach City.
28. WebVideo.Im A Marvel And Im ADC: When Superman and Wolverine go back in time to stop Bryan Singer leaving X-Men, Superman Returns is given to Michael Bay and becomes a huge hit which spawns a whole DC Cinematic Universe, Fox continues to have success with X-Men and other Marvel films, which stops Marvel from opening their own studio, and bowler hats come back into fashion.

In-Universe Examples

1. Characters.Ace Attorney Miles Edgeworth: Discussed at the end of 1-4 and touched on at other times. He would have become a defense attorney if DL-6 had never happened, and just about everyone he meets has something to say about that, especially Phoenix. He eventually decides that the prosecutor's path is the role he's chosen, not just the one that was forced on him.
2. Film.Body Double: If Detective MacLean had just shown Scully a photo of Gloria Revelle's husband - his chief suspect - Scully would have instantly identified him as the man who asked him to house-sit... and pointed out exactly how to spy on his neighbor, without mentioning that said neighbor was his wife. At the very least, it would have been rather suspicious. Alternatively, had Jake simply phoned the police at the outset of the "break-in," instead of running down the hillside to try and play hero, cops could have arrived earlier and prevented the murder altogether; Det. MacLean still finds Jake at fault for the murder, in part, for this very reason. The first part reads like speculation, but the second example is considered by a character
3. Film.The Number 23: Walter laments this at the beginning of the film: if he hadn't agreed to take Agatha's cake to the holiday office party without her, the dispatcher Sybil wouldn't have drunkenly thrown herself at him; if he hadn't turned down Sybil's advances so harshly, she wouldn't have been angry at him the next day and sent him on another call just as his shift ended; if he hadn't been sent on that last call, he wouldn't have been bitten by Ned, and he wouldn't have been late to meet Agatha; if he hadn't been late to meet his wife, she wouldn't have had time to browse in the used bookstore...where she found a copy of The Number 23.
4. Headscratchers.The Thanos Imperative: (This is a Continuity Nod to Thanos's status at the time of The Death of Captain Marvel, which is where the Cancerverse diverged from the main universe.)
5. Franchise.Mega Man: The Battle Network series was originally positioned as an Alternate History where Dr. Light won a grant for network technology that changed the course of that universe, but developments in the years that followed have weakened that connection.
6. Laconic.A Sound Of Thunder: A man Time Travels back to prehistoric times, steps on a butterfly, and changes the outcome of an election occurring during his time for the worse.
7. LeaningOnTheFourthWall.Western Animation: 'Ninjago'': In "The Mask of Deception", the writers acknowledge the ninjas' Season 8 design changes by having Cole and Jay discuss how time travel could alter their appearances.
   Cole: If someone goes back in time and alters the past, our reality as we know it would change. We could look totally different and not even know it. (Takes off mask to reveal new face and hair design)
   Jay: But we don't. (Also takes off mask to reveal new design)
8. Recap.Rick And Morty S 5 E 1 Mort Dinner Rick Andre: Every time he goes through the time portal, Morty unintentionally triggers a chain of events that makes Hoovy's entire species develop a murderous hatred of him, evolving their civilization from pre-medieval into a cyberpunk world in the span of centuries. Butterfly of Doom?
   Morty: I just took some wine, I said I was sorry! What the fuck is wrong with you people?!
9. VisualNovel.Angels With Scaly Wings: There's one between each of the Good and Bad Endings relating to what the protagonist must have to unlock the Good ending, as well as between the Neutral Ending and the others:
   • The nail between the Neutral Ending and all the others is the protagonist confronting Reza with back up rather than alone.
   • The nail between Anna's endings is the protagonist telling her humanity has a cure for cancer and ensuring they'll do whatever they can to help her get it. This, combined with the protagonist doing something so kind for her, results in her choosing to tackle the protagonist out of the way of Reza's bullets rather than sacrificing herself like in the bad ending, as she actually has something to possibly live for. An earlier nail not relating to an ending is the protagonist convincing her to go home early from work just this once to get some rest saves her from being murdered by Reza.
   • Truncated for length

10. Webcomic.International Comic Continuity: The "Shadow Gali Empire Dimension" splits off from the main timeline in which Gavla did not actually defeat Shadow Gali. Because of this, both Meta-Nui and Hapori Nui are taken over, Linnea and Myarti are captured by the Strogg, and Ketru gets infected with a Strogg virus and becomes Shadow Gali's apprentice. To make matters even worse, Shadow Gali now has the Meta Sword in her possession, and plans to use it to bait Blade from the newly formed Resistance. Word of God is that another such nail is the reason that the dimension in which Kahi is a terrorist exists.

1. FandomEnragingMisconception.Video Games (Mega Man entry): Conversely, don't say that the Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Star Force series are part of the main timeline. Officially, they're in an Alternate Universe where online technology flourished over robotics.
2. Film.X Men Apocalypse:
   • Because of the changes to the original timeline, the public is widely aware of the mutant presence in the world nearly three decades before they originally did. This leads to En Sabah Nur gaining a cult, Moira investigating it and the ancient mutant waking up when he otherwise didn't. Also, various characters were born much earlier than they were originally, and in different countries.
   • Besides the above (mostly the fault of freeing Erik from prison), the worldwide destruction can be traced to either Erik reflexively saving a steelworker at his mill or the police choices in trying to arrest him that cause the death of his family. So you could possibly blame a literal nail in the manufacture of the mill equipment for Apocalypse getting his most powerful Horseman.
3. Recap.Big Finish Doctor Who 1781963 Fanfare For The Common Men: Lenny's plan hinges on this. He somehow was able to change history to get Britain's National Service to last longer than it historically did (as The Doctor points out, National Service in Real Life was effectively dead by 1957 amid the outcry over the Suez Crisis), thereby getting The Beatles called up to the draft and serving long enough for their window to attain fame to pass. This allowed The Common Men (who all had convenient deferments) to fill the vacuum.

1. Characters.Sentinels Of The Multiverse Villains A To G: While Stuntman is largely an amusing minor character during the battle with OblivAeon, he contributes in two important places: ambushing Nixious the Chosen with a flamethrower at just the right moment to turn the tide on the Scion, and cooperating with Mainstay to take down Borr the Unstable for good... at a price.
2. Characters.The Matrix Zion: A nail coming lose on his ship causes the crewmen who didn't go into the Matrix to fall off and die before they can move the Vigilant once the machines spot it, making it a sitting duck.
3. Characters.UQ Holder Earth: Her presence alone has consequences for Negi's fight against Ialda and the world as a whole. To be brief, everything goes to hell if Asuna stays sealed in Mars.
4. Fanfic.Infinity Train Tesla Star: If Luna hadn't said to not believe what the parents said during Lincoln's Report, Aimee won't have decided to visit her, triggering the entire plot of providing justice for Lincoln.
5. Film.A Quiet Place: Pun aside, if that nail hadn't been sticking out of that stair, Evelyn wouldn't have dropped the picture frame. And the picture frame wouldn't have been shattered. And the noise of the shattering wouldn't have drawn the monsters to their house.
6. Recap.Koala Man S 1 E 08 Hot Christmas ( Create Your Own Villain entry): Kevin not allowing Christopher to use the restroom because he lacked a hall pass was the biggest mistake he has ever made because it led to a chain of events that ruined Christopher's life. While Christopher's parents are driving him home, his father makes fun of him for peeing his pants, but he wasn't paying attention to the road and got into a car crash, leaving Christopher the only survivor but with a mangled face. Because the doctors were unaware that his grandmother needed his parents' help to get her medication, she ends up dying because she's unable to reach her medication located on a high shelf, leaving Christopher the only one left in his family. With his entire family dead, the only thing he has left was his grandmother's pet kookaburra who he despises and later kills. Killing the kookaburra ends up driving Christopher insane and he would later become the Kookaburra so he can never pee again and take revenge on Kevin.
7. Recap.Outlander S 5 E 10 Mercy Shall Follow Me: Inverted. Claire diagnosing Esme's hip issues and giving her the money to get a heel lift added to her shoe is the small act of kindness that convinces Esme to defy Bonnet and let the Brianna's family know where to find her.
8. VideoGame.Cortex Command, Yet Another Stupid Death entry: Surviving the Maginot Defense mission after many brutal waves of dropships and enemies, just so the escape rocket tumbles down, crushing your robo-brain, due to irregular footing resulted from bullets and explosions from said raid marring the concrete platform.
9. VisualNovel.Melody: MC choosing to tell Melody innocuously to “just do your best” leads to a failed concert due to Steve’s sabotage, then to Melody not standing up for Bethany when she comes to pick up MC, to a bad ending.
10. Webcomic.Secret Lives Of Mobs: Some dwarves◊ decided to check out a funny rock. A week later and all-out war between orcs and dwarves is undergoing.
11. WesternAnimation.Toy Story 1:
    • While Woody dealing with Buzz taking his place and Andy and his mom preparing for the move are key parts of the story, the one thing that winds up driving most of the narrative is a Magic 8-Ball falling behind a dresser.
    • Funnily enough, had Buzz not turned around, he wouldn't have been knocked out the window.
    • Because of Woody adjusting RC's wheels before sending him after Buzz, he is jostled awake and notices Woody holding the controller. RC ratting Woody out is what turned the toys against him.
    • Woody and Buzz wouldn't have been left behind at the gas station had Andy not left the door of the van open.
    • Sid is only in the film because according to Hamm, he was kicked out of summer camp early.
12. WesternAnimation.Toy Story 2:
    • Most of the plot would not have happened if Andy hadn't accidentally torn Woody's arm, which itself wouldn't have happened if Andy had not had five minutes to play with Woody in the first place.
    • Woody's rescue of Wheezy would've gone off without a hitch... had Wheezy not begun slipping out of Buster's collar on the way back.
    • Similarly, had the corn popper not been left out in the middle of the sidewalk, Buster wouldn't have unintentionally thrown Woody off of him.
    • Had the little girl not found Woody and brought him to her mom after he fell off Buster, said mom wouldn't have thrown him onto the table and attracted Al's attention, causing him to steal Woody.
    • Played for Laughs: one of the bloopers shows what would've happened if the vent was screwed shut when the "Use your head!" plan was enacted.
13. Woobie.Mortal Kombat: Smoke? Manages to avoid his fate of becoming a cyborg, only to see the same fate befall his brother figure Sub-Zero, a fact that distresses him tremendously.

1. Anime.Ie Naki Ko Remi: Had Remi never been kidnapped as a baby and found by Barberin, she would never have met Vitalis, Mrs. Barberin, Mattia, or all of those kids. According to the description, finding out she's a changeling starts the plot
2. Film.L Argent: None of this would have happened if the rich couple at the beginning of the movie had given their son a little extra allowance.
3. Literature.Realm Of The Elderlings: Almost all of the problems in the first book are directly caused by Ronica's decision to give the family liveship not to her nice but unorthodox daughter Althea, but to the harsh and brutal husband of her other daughter, Kyle. Within the first few chapters, Kyle alienates his wife, disrupts the life of his son, chases Althea out of the family, supports his daughter becoming a manipulative vixen, kicks out most of the ship's crew, and turns the newly awakened family ship to slave trading.
4. Series.Casey Jones
   • “The Old Timer”: If Casey Jr. hadn’t gone out to find Redrock, he never would have been forced to take him back to town on a handcar, discovering in the process that the storm from last night had washed out the trestle, and would have lead to the Cannonball plummeting into the ravine with everyone onboard.
   • “The Trackwalker:” If Casey hadn’t sent his son to check the Cannonball’s steam levels, the crooked fireman and blackmailer would have sent the train plowing into the Northbound Express, causing untold amounts of deaths in the process. Moreover, the titular drifter would have never noticed the train running by unmanned if Casey Jr. hadn’t been aboard blowing the whistle like crazy, thus he never would have rushed to save him and stop the train, averting disaster and getting his job back in the process.
   • “The Silk Train”: If Casey Jr. hadn’t asked his uncle to stay up and watch the Silk Train go by, they never would have noticed the window to the station opened and the oil lamp left on. Thus, the thieves would have not only tricked the Cannonball into leaving at 1:37AM, they would have been hit by the silk train and exploded in a fiery inferno, killing Casey and everyone onboard. Moreover, the $3 million in silk would have been destroyed in the wreck, and the shipping companies would have gotten away with corporate sabotage.

Fanwork Examples

1. CharacterExaggeration.Fan Works: ...as the story is an AU fic where a change in the past affected Hiashi in the present for the worse, but the nail responsible for him being the way he is hasn't been completely explained in story.
2. Characters.The Promise: Spared by the Adaptation: The mission to Kusa was fortunately derailed by Nariko's interference.
3. CynicismCatalyst.Fan Works (Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison entry) :After a sparring session at the Academy where she managed to land a couple hits on him, Sasuke brutally rips into Sakura, insisting that she'll never be more than a 'civilian-born paper ninja' who'll be lucky to end up as Cannon Fodder. Along with shredding her former crush on him, this convinces Sakura that his attitude is common in Konoha; that the majority of people there regard her as expendable and replaceable. This spurs her resolve to prove them all wrong, but also makes her innately distrustful of others.
4. Fanfic.Coming Back Broken: Not only does Claire join Jim into the Darklands in this retelling, but they were gone for months. With Toby being the only one of the three left behind, he was unable to cover for their disappearances and was more or less forced to tell Barbara lake the truth who, after a brief emotional breakdown, tells Claire's parents.
5. Fanfic.Extended Family Is Still Family: Appears to be a list of changes from canon
   • Mirabel had discovered Bruno hiding in the walls weeks before she did in canon.
   • While Mirabel went to Isabela and Mariano's engagement dinner — and wound up accidentally ruining it — here she stays in the nursery after Alma tells her she isn't invited.
   • While a cactus sprouting between Mirabel and Isabela was a major turning point for Isabela, the first time it happens here she ignores it, too upset to pay it any mind. In fact, she had been growing cacti all over the house out of Power Incontinence, Casita helping hide all of them.
     Camilo: That's why I've been finding them all around the house... I sat on one the other day!
   • While Mirabel, Antonio and Dolores discovered Bruno hiding in the walls before Casita collapsed, here that list grows to Camilo, Luisa and Isabela.
   • While in canon Mirabel was the one who called Alma out for her toxic expectations, here the entire family takes the opportunity to fight her off.
6. Fanfic.Gravity Falls Rule 63: Because of changes in gender, the episodes happened a little differently.
7. Fanfic.Passing Days: A few notable examples include: Some of these read major, but the spirit of the example seems to list any canon divergence
   • The summoned Scathach-Skadi is an Alternate Self to the original, where she came from a timeline where Chaldea failed to arrive and Surtr destroyed her Scandinavian Lostbelt, making this Skadi a Sole Survivor and The Resenter towards the Crypters. It is thanks to Vy summoning Skadi during Part 1.5 before the advent of the Lostbelts that lets Skadi pull a Big Damn Heroes on Vy against Kadoc and Anastasia in the first Lostbelt.
   • From Vy Grailing seven Servants by the time Chaldea comes to Atlantis (Arturia Pendragon, Robin Hood, Achilles, Ereshkigal, Ryougi Shiki, the aforementioned Skadi, and Berserker Musashi), she gives Wodime the Curbstomp Battle thanks to simple teamwork not letting him cast "Anima Animusphere." This feat is repeated in Olympus, thanks to Vy Grailing Space Ishtar and Meltryllis in time to throw Wodime off-guard again while she starts the battle herself with a well-timed Groin Attack.
   • Vy summons Xiang Yu before Chaldea enters the Chinese Lostbelt, resulting in Hinako having a near Villainous Breakdown at the prospect of fighting her beloved husband while Gao Changgong barely functions out of an incoming Heroic BSoD.
   • It is mentioned in Day 28 that thanks to Achilles using his shield in the prologue of Atlantis, the Shadow Border and Nemo avoided some of the damage that occurred from Artemis' arrow.
   • Arturia and Mordred actually make amends with each other in Day 16.
   • Day 20 marks the return of Caster Da Vinci after her end in the Lostbelt Prologue, allowing for her and Rider Da Vinci to coexist while also letting Caster be the Team Mom to Mash and Vy again.
   • Extra Day 4 establishes that because Vy had used Holy Grails on Arturia, Achilles, and Robin, all three were able to escape Kama's grasp when they seized control of Novum Chaldea to make the Ooku. It's thanks to the Grails that Robin was able to fight his implied Painful Transformation into a green skeleton puppet (originally an Easter Egg enemy in-game) despite him not being close by Vy and Mash for Sion to keep him out of the initial corruption; even then, Vy having Arturia and Achilles by her side while traversing the Ooku allowed her to save him from any more Transformation Horror.
   • Saber Musashi notably is Spared by the Adaptation after her Heroic Sacrifice in Olympus, being successfully summoned back to Novum Chaldea as a full-time Servant thanks to Vy holding onto her tsuba eyepatch from Shimosa in Day 34. Because of this, she's able to tag along with Vy to Heian-kyo (thanks to her connection with her Grailed Berserker self), breaking Ashiya Douman's Control Freak tendencies with the Singularity alongside Robin to fight with him.
8. Fanfic.Snippets Of Sirin Shariacs Life:
   • This AU explores how events would have turned out if Sirin and Cecilia survived the Second Honkai War.
   • While her canon fate at the end of the Previous Era is left intentionally ambiguous, Mobius is alive and active in this story and works at St. Freya to observe the Herrschers.
9. Fanfic.Total Loud Island:
   • With the addition of Lincoln and Dawn to the cast of contestants, several of the challenges that the Killer Bass canonically lost are won by them instead. This leads to a few contestants being eliminated earlier or later than in canon, namely Tyler, Eva, and Trent.
   • Since Harold had Lincoln in his corner standing up for him, he doesn't sabotage the eliminations to get Courtney kicked off to get back at Duncan before being eliminated himself.
   • The new Sudden Death eliminations scream this, as suddenly a different factor or rule can send any character home at a different place than in canon. Just ask Geoff, Izzy and DJ.
   • As DJ wasn't eliminated in "Hook, Line, and Screamer" and Harold never rigged the votes, Duncan saw no need to try to get Heather's vote in "Wawanakwa Gone Wild", so he never helped her try to get her animal, nor did he clean the communal bathrooms afterward.
   • The addition of Dawn and Lincoln to the cast increases it's size. Because of this, Chris has to come up with new challenges for the contestants to perform.
   • Due to her and Dawn getting Lincoln to show off his artistic talent in "Not Quite Famous", Bridgette doesn't do her handstand on stage. Thus, spared the humiliation of vomiting at the audience.
10. Fanfic.The Strongest Hero:
    • As a result of Saitama being a popular hero, everyone treats Saitama with far more respect than they ever did in canon, to the point that villains and monsters acknowledge his strength and immediately surrender when they hear that he's at the scene.
    • Because the House of Evolution surrendered to Saitam the Hero Association is able to incorporate Genus' research into their own initiatives.
11. Fanfic.Turtle Kittens
    • In canon, the Hamato Clan's Mutation Day was just any other day, the night the Turtles go to the surface for the first time being relatively peaceful before they try to save April. Here, it happened during Chinese New Year, the festival in Chinatown being the perfect cover for the mutants to blend in. Aspen also goes with them, unlike Splinter who stays in the lair.
    • While in canon the turtles failed to rescue the O'Neils, only able to break-out April later, here they manage to rescue both of them when they first meet.
    • The Foot Clan doesn't make their move until after the Turtles manage to successfully end The Kraang's occupation of New York.
12. Laconic.True Potential: Naruto For Want Of A Nail fanfic where Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru are put on the same team, with Anko as their sensei.
13. MisplacedRetribution.Fan Works: In Think Before You Speak, Izuku dodged Katsuki's attempt to blast him during their first training exercise; as a result, Tenya was hit instead. Tensei hears about what happened from Aizawa, and subsequently blames Izuku while speaking to the media about what happened.
14. Recap.JWITCHS 1 E 13 Framed:
    • Rather than sneak into Phobos' castle in order to enter Elias' painting from the Meridian side, Uncle is able to craft a spell to get into the painting from the Earth side.
    • A minor detail that also pops up — when making disguises to blend in within the painting, Hay Lin doesn't give Cornelia a peasant dress (to mock her vanity) but on Jade's suggestion instead gives her a jester outfit.
15. Recap.Luz Clawthorne Two Worlds One Family Chapter 32: Differences from "Yesterday's Lie": the most obvious one is that Vee doesn't appear due to her being in Gravity Falls. Luz isn't able to contact the Demon Realm native trapped in the Historical Society and she isn't able to help them escape from Jacob Hopkins.
16. Recap.Same Difference Chapter 19 Targeted: In "Target: April O'Neil", Chrome Dome was sent to kill April by Karai before he was overwritten to capture her for the Kraang. Here the Shredder has him capture Miwa instead.
17. SecretSecretKeeper.Fan Works: an Alternate Universe where Weredad exposed Chat Noir's secret identity to Papillion, Adrien eventually becomes this to all of the other Miraculi holders.
18. StealingTheCredit.Fan Works: Lenore Raven's Mayura Marinette has Lila present when Marinette saves Master Fu from being hit by a car. Before he can recover enough to see who was responsible, she jumps in, shoves Marinette aside and blocks her from view while acting as though she was the one who'd pulled him out of harm's way. This works well enough that he decides to trust her with the Ladybug Earrings... which doesn't end well for anyone involved.

Canon Examples

1. Recap.Red Dwarf Season VII Ouroboros:
   • The Cat and Lister of Kochanski's timeline are more intelligent and sophisticated, with the alternate Cat's voice being deeper.
   • The alternate Red Dwarf wore blue uniforms instead of "our" Dwarf's grey / beige numbers.
   • The extended version has Kochanski stop on realizing the boys are operating out of Starbug and asks what happened to their Red Dwarf.

1. Characters.Harry Potter Death Eaters: Suppose Regulus had come with the information about the Horcruxes to Dumbledore and the Order. Since this was before Voldemort's first downfall, it's likely that Voldemort's return could have been delayed or averted entirely, and many people would have lived.
2. Characters.House Of The Dragon Greens: This was likely because she did not succeed in bearing children for Henry I. Alicent, as portrayed in both this show and in Fire & Blood, can be read as the Corrupted Character Copy of what might have happened if she did. "She" referring to the historical figure Adeliza of Louvain
3. ComicBook.World Of Krypton: Why Nyra thought it to be a good idea to make one of her clones Kan-Z's wife is unknown, but if she hadn't done that then Kan-Z wouldn't have used the weapon that thousands of years later would have destroyed Krypton and led Jor-El to send his son to Earth.
4. Fridge.Doctor Who S 36 E 11 World Enough And Time: To add to the Doctor's guilt, remember all the times this could've been prevented: If Yana never opened the fob watch. If Saxon hadn't been shot by Lucy. If Ten had shot Saxon to break the link with Gallifrey. If Twelve had killed Missy at the end of "Death in Heaven." If he had allowed Missy to be executed in "Extremis." Any of those scenarios, and the TARDIS crew never travels to that ship to test Missy, and Bill is alive and human. And that's just in the revival series.
5. Fridge.Final Fantasy XIV: Lolorito DOES state that he had Ilberd planted in the Crystal Braves to spy on it. And that Ilberd genuinely believed that Lolorito would free Ala Mhigo once the Sultana was dealt with. So it's possible that the knowledge Ilberd gained was not his main goal, but one he used nonetheless when he and the rest of the traitors became wanted men. So in a way, Lolorito picking Ilberd to be his spy is some serious For Want Of A Nail.
6. Main.Never The Selves Shall Meet, Ben 10: Alien Force entry:another version of Ben from the future appears, remembering the previous time travel adventure, but not of meeting himself as a teenager. One could argue the very act of meeting another version of yourself causes your own future to change.
7. Recap.Quantum Leap S 5 E 08 Trilogy Part 1 One Little Heart: It can be assumed that, had Sam not been delayed because of accidentally hitting Marie with his car, he would've been able to make it back to his house before Leta decided to start the fire.
8. VideoGame.Call Of Duty Ghosts: If the U.S. astronauts managed to successfully fend off against the South American Federation Space Marines from using the kinetic weapons satellite against the United States, then United States's economy wouldn't be in shambles. Unfortunately, the Federation forces did succeed their objectives, and Hugo Chavez's dream of destroying America came true.
9. WebOriginal.The Arknverse: If Uriel hadn’t made a (rather naive, idealistic) vow not to slay a fellow Arkn, he would have agreed to make the trip into the Infernous, preventing the Arkn Lords from sending Ellpagg in his place; Ellpagg wouldn’t have had his divine blood awakened, wouldn't become mad and corrupted, and wouldn’t set out on his “crusade” to awaken the Arknangels and create a neutral party. (Of course, all of the above happened according to the Carver’s ultimately benevolent plan. He’s The Chessmaster for a very good reason.)
10. WMG.Robin Hood: Probably there was a For Want Of A Nail sequence of events that led to her getting a different name. Whether this means there are versions of Rabies and Barrington around is still to be determined.

1. Main.Forklift Fu, Real Life entry: Unbeknownst to them, the forklift's innate instability caused cracks to form deep inside the pylon which eventually led to the crash of Flight 191 and the deaths of 271 crew and passengers and two people on the ground. A different airline used the same procedure but with an overhead crane, without any problems.
2. UsefulNotes.The New Tens Real Life: The Arab Spring in North Africa: Tunisia overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the dictator of Tunisia, in 2011, after mass protests incited by the public self-immolation of a fruit vendor. The country subsequently held its elections the same year. Tunisia was the only success story of The Arab Spring that it inspired, as the country has had a relatively clean democratic credentials in the years after.

1. Characters.DC Comics Vandal Savage: If Rip Hunter hadn't mistaken Savage's father for Savage himself...
2. Characters.Gunvolt Chronicles Luminous Avenger IX: As this version of Lola comes from a timeline where Gunvolt and Joule both died in the original, this means that the events in Gunvolt 2 never play out, and as such she never receives the Muse Shard and gains true Muse powers. Timey wimey shenanigans
3. Characters.Shin Megami Tensei IV: If she didn't pass the Gauntlet Rite, she'd have become a nun for the Monastery.
4. EarnYourHappyEnding.Fan Works: Game Theory, beyond its For Want Of A Nail premise and intricate Worldbuilding, is a Deconstruction Fic where good intentions, a strong will, and liberal application of offensive magic does not solve all your problems and can in fact make them worse.
5. Fanfic.A Golden Meridian: Clovis actually is dealing with poison gas this time, as opposed to studying Codes.
6. Fanfic.Partially Kissed Hero: : Like many fanfictions, this attempts such a scenario, where the nail is that Harry is exposed to corrupting magic early on. However, it ultimately averts this trope as a myriad of other factors are changed that are irrelevant to Harry's experience. It also attempts to justify the nail so hard that Harry already undergoes a personality overhaul, power upgrade, and friendship reassessment before the nail even happens. 'So what is the truth' meme
7. Fanfic.The Mermaid And The Genie: Things change when Flounder discovers the lamp after Triton has destroyed Ariel's collection but before Flotsam and Jetsam can approach Ariel with Ursula's "offer". What changes?
8. WebVideo.What If Ash Won The Indigo League: Link to subpage ForWantOfANail.What If Ash Won The Indigo League
9. Fridge.Arrow: If you pay attention in "Three Ghosts," you'll see that Slade doesn't have his swords when he wakes up in the submarine, but he does when running to save Sara, Oliver, and Shado. Perhaps his hatred towards Oliver is less Insane Troll Logic and more For Want Of A Nail.
10. Main.The Rival, description: Often they show what the hero could have become if fate was just a little bit different.
11. NightmareFuel.Jingo: "Things to do todaytodaytoday: Die..." Sinkhole