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After the movie Its a Wonderful Life, a device whereby an external force (usually supernatural) intervenes in a time of crisis to show the character facing said crisis how things would have been had he or she never been born/entered that line of work/come to town/what have you. May occur as part of a Near-Death Experience, or following Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter. Episodes with this plot usually take place around Christmas time, because It's a Wonderful Life takes place around Christmas. If a show hasn't done a Yet Another Christmas Carol episode yet, they'll be doing this one.

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  • It's a Wonderful Plot
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  • After the movie Its a Wonderful Life, a device whereby an external force (usually supernatural) intervenes in a time of crisis to show the character facing said crisis how things would have been had he or she never been born/entered that line of work/come to town/what have you. May occur as part of a Near-Death Experience, or following Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter. Episodes with this plot usually take place around Christmas time, because It's a Wonderful Life takes place around Christmas. If a show hasn't done a Yet Another Christmas Carol episode yet, they'll be doing this one.
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  • After the movie Its a Wonderful Life, a device whereby an external force (usually supernatural) intervenes in a time of crisis to show the character facing said crisis how things would have been had he or she never been born/entered that line of work/come to town/what have you. May occur as part of a Near-Death Experience, or following Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter. Episodes with this plot usually take place around Christmas time, because It's a Wonderful Life takes place around Christmas. If a show hasn't done a Yet Another Christmas Carol episode yet, they'll be doing this one. It is usual that people would be worse off without the character facing this plot. The most common subversion is that everybody's life is better. The world is usually governed by the Butterfly of Doom; regardless of how minor the change, there is rarely a middle ground or a world which is only slightly different, to the extent that the character's absence, no matter how seemingly insignificant or small, will result in a complete Crapsack World in which there is little hope whatsoever. Also closely related to Necessary Fail. This may be a Discredited Trope already. Nearly half the examples below are subversions of some sort. A Sub-Trope of Whole-Plot Reference (so anything less than the plot is merely a Shout-Out). Compare Yet Another Christmas Carol and How the Character Stole Christmas. And here and here is a re-creation of It's a Wonderful Life using clips from TV episodes that referenced It's a Wonderful Life. May or may not be related to It's a Wonderful Failure. Examples of It's a Wonderful Plot include:
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