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Flashback (trope)
You don't have to ask for permission.

"I think I'll try extra hard to remember today's events and conversations, in case I someday want to recall them verbatim."
— Gordon Frohman, Concerned

A narrative technique in which we're shown events that took place before the episode's main action. Said events may have taken place on-screen earlier, but may also be new scenes depicting things hitherto only referenced.

Specific types of flashbacks include:

Sub-Trope of Separate Scene Storytelling. Dreaming of Times Gone By and Past Experience Nightmare are two ways to show them. See also Flashback Effects for ways of distinguishing a Flashback from normal action, and Viewers Are Goldfish for flashbacks to events that are still fresh in the audience's mind. It's also a brilliant way to indulge in some Exposition of Immortality. The inverse of this trope is the Flashforward, which depicts events in the future instead of the past. Compare Interquel, which is usually a separate installment in the franchise but set in between previously released works.

When a character is having a flashback, it can be because of psychic/magical powers, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or simply resurfacing memories. In either case, it's a common justification for a movie to show the audience a Flashback.

If you want the page about the game Flashback: Quest for Identity, go here.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Aharen-san wa Hakarenai: The final chapters of the manga reveal that the events presented thus far are a big flashback, which is why the manga's pages have black borders overall.
  • Bleach: Happens a lot in the manga. They often happen during a significant fight in which one character is going to lose or die or if the fight helps defines a character that's won. The anime, via Adaptation Expansion, can go to town with this making episodes out of what's sometimes nothing more than a few panels in the manga.
  • Episodes of the Case Closed anime adapted from the manga, especially multi-part episodes, frequently employ flashbacks and in-dialogue recaps to pad out the run time (as well as occasionally replaying the last several minutes of the previous episode as the beginning of the current one), since otherwise there wouldn't be enough material to fill the full episode length. It's not uncommon to have seen the same footage 3 or 4 times (counting the first time it was shown) by the end of a multi-part episode. (It's especially noticeable when viewing all parts of multi-part episodes in one sitting.)
  • Celestial Method consistently uses flashbacks to when the main cast were 8 years old to drive the targedy of the ongoing drama present throughout the series.
  • Cluster Edge uses this constantly, to the point it conquers the series.
  • Happens multiple times in Code Geass where characters' childhoods are shown to better explain their motivations and behavior. Usually it leads to a Tear Jerker.
  • In Digimon, after Impmon does his Heel–Face Turn, the series constantly flashes back to Leomon's death, which Impmon caused as Beelzemon and comes to deeply regret. Impmon and Jeri have other flashbacks to show how they became what they are. Jeri's mother died when she was little, her father became distant and she could never really connect with her step-mom, and Impmon gained a hatred of humans because of his abuse at the hands of his young Tamers.
    • Series one and two also had flashbacks. Most of the Digidestined have flashbacks of family deaths, such as Izzy and Cody, who have flashbacks about their parents' deaths, Ken has his brother Sam's death, and Tai has the time that he almost was responsible for his sister Kari's demise. Owikowa also had flashbacks, to show how and Hiroki (Cody's dad) were friends, and how alone he felt after Hiroki died. TK often has flashbacks about Angemon's sacrifice to stop Devimon, and Ken has flashbacks of his time as the Digimon Emperor.
  • Fruits Basket has quite a few, since we need to see how each character's Dark and Troubled Past has caused them to be the wreck they are now.
  • Gintama is not the typical shounen series where characters grow and get stronger as the story progresses. Instead they start strong and stay strong, and goofy, and vulgar, and undignified. The majority of the funny stuff happens in the present. It's in the flashbacks, however, that the serious pasts of the main characters come out (with some funny moments) to show what happened to bring these characters here to the present. Eventually, the drama of the past catches up to the drama of the present.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler uses flashbacks to explain some parts of a few character traits, then spends an arc to build up a new character and ready the story to be thrown into a much more serious arc, before toning things back down.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers: America admits to always getting these when he begins to clean his storage room, and never being able to finish or throw anything out. Might overlap with It Was a Gift since two of the three objects he gets flashbacks over (a house with a set of wooden soldiers and a 3-piece suit) were in fact presents from England. Might overlap with Troubled Backstory Flashback several times- both the soldiers and the suit bring back bittersweet memories, which he lampshades by exclaiming there HAS to be something cool that doesn't bring bad memories with itself. Cue him finding a scratched musket from the Revolutionary War, bringing one of the biggest Tear Jerker moments in the entire series.
  • THE iDOLM@STER - Chihaya gets a ton of flashbacks foreshadowing her past, before things hit the fan.
  • The beginning of episode 9 of Is the Order a Rabbit? shows Chino's grandfather while he was still human sitting on a park bench with his pet rabbit Tippy. He then sees a young Cocoa who sits next to him while hugging Tippy, and her older sister Mocha can be seen as she leaves the bench a short while later.
  • Kiddy Grade starts doing frequent Flashback Cuts around episodes 9-12 when Eclair struggles with her repressed memories and the numerous times she's come back from the dead. This is followed by episode 16, appropriately titled "Look/Back" which combines a Recap Episode with expository flashbacks and episode 20 which is again largely based around a series of flashbacks.
  • Used many times in Lyrical Nanoha, may it be to reveal the Anti Villains Start of Darkness or to simply show what drives the characters. Played with in regards to Fate, who had a Flash Back of her days when her mother loved her to show why she's such a Love Martyr, only for her to eventually realize that those memories were not hers.
  • Naruto has an large number of flashbacks. Protagonists, antagonists, and bystanders alike will go into flashback after flashback, explaining their tragic back-stories, lives, and motives. Entire episodes will consist two characters talking while they exchange flashbacks. An example: Hinata's confession to Naruto during the Pain arc took a couple pages in the manga, while in the anime it took an episode because roughly 3/4 of the episode was a montage of flashbacks going through her childhood and her interactions with Naruto. This used to be different with this series in its early days, when it didn't have much to recount, but the anime Overtook the Manga and went into a Filler marathon until the manga picked back up again. Then the producers of the anime developed a strategy to add Padding to almost all canon episodes so they would be as drawn out as possible, barring extended fight scenes, lest this happen again. Many times these flashbacks really accentuate a moment or decision by a character. Example: Sasuke's Tragic Backstory at the Valley of the End, to which we get new meanings of hundreds of chapters later. In the case of Hinata's flashbacks in the anime episode of the Pain arc, the flashbacks were not mere filler but an elaboration of Naruto and Hinata's characters, or an expansion on what is canon.
  • Ninja Nonsense parodies this. When asked to explain how he got stuck on Miyabi's chest, Onsokumaru promptly goes into a flashback covering various events from the previous week, even though the only relevant event (Miyabi tripping and falling on top of him) occurred about five minutes earlier. The ninja are quick to point this out.
  • One Piece uses these like there's no tomorrow. Mostly for the background stories of the main cast, but other characters get plenty of them, too.
  • The Rave Master dub as a truly epic flashback. The first time they use it it's a little fitting; It shows when Elie first meets Sieg after developing amnesia and he attempts to kill her, leading to her present actions. The second time they play it is right after she meets Sieg again. Right before it starts he questions her with (voiced very well) "How did you survive?" Then it goes to the flashback, where he says the exact same thing... in the exact same tone, with the exact same expression (not that he has that many expressions)
  • Soul Eater - Used mostly in the conventional manner of revealing backstory, but Maka's one during the Clown chapters is particularly twisted. It looks like an ordinary flashback until everyone falls down dead and little!Maka wants to know why her daddy isn't getting up...
  • Tenjho Tenge has a flashback arc, which takes up a large chunk of the anime. While it is important for establishing the backstories of many of the show's characters, unfortunately the anime didn't get far enough to really do anything with those newly fleshed-out characters before it was cancelled.
  • Unlimited Fafnir: Used regularly to reveal important events, such as Yuu first making a contract with Yggdrasil for Power at a Price way to defeat a dragon attacking his hometown.
  • A lot of these show up in Yu-Gi-Oh!, even to the point where they actually had a Flashback within a Flashback.

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Friends employs flashbacks fairly often, with Season 8 containing a few specifically to earlier episodes prominently featuring Kalo since Careful S. is remembering him since the Heroic Sacrifice he performed in Season 7. The episodes from Season 10 onwards with the new art style that flashback to pre-art shift episodes keep the footage in the old art style, with Season 12 episode 35 and its flashbacks to pre-art shift episodes featuring Zelia (as well as the theatrical film Happy Heroes 2: The Battle of Planet Qiyuan, which was also from before the new visual style was first used) being one example.
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: In episode 173, Wolffy has a flashback to when he ate some disgusting cookies earlier.

    Comic Books 
  • The Transformers (Marvel): Flashbacks were frequent in early issues, with a page or more of some issues used to recreate scenes from previous issues.
  • The Tale of One Bad Rat: Flashbacks are used several times, especially the first half, to show significant events in Helen's life before she ran away. One example is how she adopted her pet rat.
  • Last Days of the Justice Society: Dr. Fate shares with the modern Justice Society a flashback sequence of events that happened on the day of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral in 1945, to show how history has been changed when Adolf Hitler has used the Spear Of Destiny to destroy the universe, tapping into the mystical energies of the Spectre to make it happen.
  • Violine: The titular character's father tells his backstory in flashback.
  • Clean Room has the primary narrative interwoven with flashbacks to Astrid's past that introduce or explain elements in the present.
  • Birthright uses flashbacks to Mikey's time in Terrenos, often framed as him explaining something to his family.
  • ElfQuest uses a flashback right at the beginning to show the reader some of the elves' Origin Story, which goes a long way toward explaining the current events which we return to following the flashback.
  • Supergirl:
  • Superman:
  • 'Wonder Woman (1942)'': "The Legend of Rainbow and Stardust!" starts with the framing device of sitting around a campfire with Hard Candy telling how Rainbow went from circus performer to local Texan legend, with Rainbow's final performance and escape with Stardust shown in flashback. The last half of the story involves Rainbow and Stardust helping Wondy, the Heyday triplets and the Candy family and ranch hands fight off some hustlers in the present.
  • Secret Path (2016): A number of flashbacks occur in the comic about Wenjack's life, mostly from his time in the residential school.
  • Used frequently in IDW Publishing's Clue comic, to the annoyance of the butler. This proves... unwise.
  • Calico (2020): The stories are interspersed with sepia-toned flashbacks to Hector's childhood, usually when he's talking about days gone by.
  • Samurai Grandpa: The comic has a number of flashbacks to various points of Ojichan's youth. In them, we see his old battles, his relationship with his son, and his old loves.
  • The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: In the first issue of the second miniseries, Farnsworth explains to his employees how the Simpsons characters ended up in New New York. He gives to his employees flashback pills that will allow them to see his story while he's telling. However, Bender has no tongue, so he hides his pill under Fry's tongue. Fry then ends up seeing double flashbacks as a result.

    Comic Strips 
  • Sally Forth: In an arc for Feb. 12, 2010, Sally remembered the first time she met her boss, Ralph. She eventually snaps out of it.
    Ted: You seemed zoned out for days! I almost called the hospital.
    Sally: Don't worry. No one's ever died from a flashback.

    Fan Works 
  • Always Visible: The entirety of Zero Act is essentially Delia's memories of what happened to her two years ago.
  • Burning Secret: Occasionally, we see what happened at earlier points in the story from another character’s perspective, such as what Lincoln said when he told the blackmailer off, and what Lisa was thinking on the day of the fire.
  • The Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Fan Fic The Joy of Battle uses flashbacks in the same way that Lost does to tell how the characters ended up at the point of the story's beginning and also to reveal Back Story through characterizing scenes.
  • Several in The Tainted Grimoire:
    • Vaticus when explaining his Backstory.
    • Sir Loin has flashbacked to his and Adelle's history together, and his history from before that.
    • Bowen had a flashback showing his memories of his wife.
  • True to the series, the Calvin at Camp Lost parody features some... troubling... flashbacks for the kids.
  • Calvin & Hobbes: The Series uses this to explain Dr. Brainstorm's Sibling Rivalry with Thunderstorm.
  • In the Total Drama story, Legacy, chapter 2 and most of chapter 3 cover events from years before the main setting, but are told as if they were set in the same time frame.
  • Chapter 18 of Super Paper Mario X starts with Sonic, as always, scared of going in the water (since he can't swim and will drown in the water, after all). When he is informed that this was not the first time the group had to go through water, Sonic says to "name the times", followed by a flashback to the first Paper Mario X (lampshaded by Mario). When Sonic says there was no way it happened twice, a flashback to Paper Mario X 2 follows.
  • Turnabout Storm, true to the Ace Attorney style it uses, has several of these, usually in monochrome. For example, both Part 3 - Twilight and Part 3 - Phoenix include a flashback to a same scene of Part 2 (specifically the point where Twilight touches Phoenix's Magatama, causing it to react weirdly), both for different reasons.
  • In the Naruto AU story The Quiet Fox, virtually every other chapter is a flashback, each one narrated by a different character. The one narrated by Sasuke is quite notable, yet Naruto himself doesn't provide any narration.
  • Glitched Miko AU: Miko has flashbacks to her time in the lab where she was created every time she is knocked out.
  • The Bolt Chronicles: Penny's disastrous first driving experience in "The Car" is told via flashback.
  • The Forever Captain series: a frequently used device across the series.
  • The Extended Railway Series: Many stories in the series are told this way. These include most of the stories in "Mid Sodor Engines", Winston's recounting the time he tried to save King James II from scrap in "Winston the Diesel-Hydraulic Engine", and Skarloey talking about some kids joyriding in a truck in "Railway Safety Engines".
  • Guys Being Dudes: While he's unpacking his old clothes from Subject Debate in Orre to wear on Go Fest Day 2, seeing a sticky note from Candela starts Arlo on one about their past relationship.
  • Batman 1939: In Three's Company Batman flashes back to a point in his training during a fight.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: Invoked in "Mo Money Mo Card Games", where Yami demands to see a flashback of his previous life after Ishizu merely gives him a brief Info Dump. Ishizu defies this, however, by showing only the most useless of flashbacks.
    Baby Pharaoh: WAH! WAH! Baby Pharaoh wants milk! Somebody fetch me a nipple!

    Literature 
  • Darcy and Gran Don't Like Babies: When Gran says that she thinks what Darcy's mother said about her being just like the baby when she was one, we see an illustration of Darcy's own infancy.
  • Stephen King's The Dark Tower:
    • Book One: The Gunslinger: The first quarter of the novel is devoted to flashbacks to events just prior to the beginning of the novel, and flashbacks to Roland's childhood within those.
    • Book Four: Wizard and Glass: The bulk of the story is a flashback to a formative event in Roland's early adulthood.
  • Dreamblood Duology: In The Killing Moon, Nijiri's and Ehiru's first meeting, in which Nijiri has requested a gathering of his mother to end her suffering from The Plague and Ehiru is sent to enact it, is described in a flashback.
  • In the Erebus Sequence, the first book alternates between telling the main story and providing chronologically-ordered scenes from the protagonist's life before that, meaning that what's happening "now" and the background of How We Got Here are interwoven. The second book uses fewer flashbacks, but there's still a reasonable number.
  • Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite): The third chapter is entirely in italics and shows what happened the day that Ben drowned. Jeff and Ben were on a summer camping trip the former went to fetch sunscreen just before the canoeing activity while Ben ran ahead, and by the time Jeff found people crowding around his body, it was too late.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Tom Riddle's diary, introduced in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, could show the reader events that had occurred while Tom Riddle had been at school, fifty years before current events.
    • The Pensieve allows characters to relive memories that have been added to this magical bowl.
  • A variation in Hurog, where POV character Ward can't actually see Oreg's PTSD flashback, but can hear the sounds of Oreg being tortured and see the injuries open back up on his body. The second book notes that this is a fairly regular occurrence.
  • Isaac Asimov:
    • "Flies":
      • The first flashback is to over twenty years ago; when the trio discuss Beelzebub and establishing flychology by analyzing the emotions of Casey's flies.
      • The second flashback is to about eighteen years ago; when they discuss animals having religion and Polen is starting to become miserable because of his empathic abilities.
    • "What If— (1952)": Mr What If has a pane of cloudy glass that he uses to show "what if" timelines. The characters experience them as if they were reliving a memory together.
  • The Machineries of Empire:
    • Multiple flashbacks to Jedao's past happen near the end of Ninefox Gambit as Cheris starts swallowing wraithglass to view Jedao's memories and figure out what his plan is about.
    • In Extracurricular Activities, Jedao's and Meng's first meeting is shown in a flashback.
  • In Michael Flynn's Spiral Arm novel On the Razor's Edge, Donovan has many flashbacks of recovering memories.
  • Sten: In the final book, the Emperor flashes back to his childhood and his steps on his rise to power.
  • Sweep: The Story of a Girl and her Monster: Some parts of the book delve into Nan's past with her old guardian, the Sweep. These parts have the text in italic.
  • In Transitions Catti-brie's magical illness causes her to float in the air while being trapped in flashbacks of her life. Drizzt can even discern the scenes from what she's saying, which really doesn't make his emotional stability during the crisis any easier.
  • In Vampire Academy, Rose occasionally interrupts the present narrative to Flashback to past events. Rose herself, Lissa, Dimitri, and Sonya Karp all receive additional characterization through these Flashbacks.
  • War Crimes: For Garrosh Hellscream's trial, the court uses the Vision of Time to view past events, in order to avoid errors in the witness testimony.
  • Shtum: Ben has a series of these in "Rollercoaster," remembering his youth, the time around Jonah's conception, and Jonah's childhood.

    Radio 
  • Our Miss Brooks: A large portion of "Borrowing Money to Fly", features Miss Brooks flashing back to her initial arrival in Madison.

    Religion 
  • The Book of Mormon:
    • Large parts of the book of Mosiah are a flashback, first to the people of Zeniff, who split from the main body of the Nephites about 70 years earlier, then to the people of Alma, who split away from them, making the chronology quite confusing.
    • About ten chapters of the book of Alma do the same, recounting the sons of Mosiah and their 14-year proselyting mission among the Lamanites, immediately after having recorded the end of their mission.
    • Also the book of Ether, which records the history of the Jaredites, starting from thousands of years earlier.

    Theatre 
  • The first act of Nine (Musical) ends with a series of flashbacks to Guido's youth.
  • Miss Saigon goes back to "The Fall of Saigon" midway through the second act
  • During the song "Poor Thing" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the story of Lucy Barker's rape is shown onstage as Mrs. Lovett sings about it.
  • Arcadia alternates scenes between flashbacks and the modern day.
  • In Proof (2000), there are several scenes that flashback to when Robert was alive.
  • The original version of Merrily We Roll Along had the story told in flashback, framed by Frank speaking at a graduation ceremony.
  • Angels in America: In something not unlike a Pensieve Flashback, Prior recounts his encounter with The Angel to Belize in the middle of a later scene, and both his telling and the encounter are played simultaneously onstage.
  • The Phantom of the Opera is told in one giant flashback, as the show's opening scene is of the aged Raoul attending an auction selling off items from the opera house.
  • In the musical Violet, flashbacks occur regularly. Some characters (e.g., Young Violet, Father) appear only in flashbacks.
  • The Mrs. Hawking play series: About a third of installment four, Gilded Cages, takes place in 1859 Singapore, where Mrs. Hawking grew up, met the man who would she would reluctantly marry, and made her very first discovery of the injustice of the world.
  • In The Miracle Worker, Anne Sullivan's past is revealed to the audience through multiple flashbacks. During her flashbacks, she hears and interacts with the voices of her younger brother and others from the orphan asylum.
    Boy's Voice: Annie, what's that noise?
    Annie: Just a cot, Jimmie.
    Boy's Voice: Where they pushin' it?
    Annie: To the deadhouse.
    Boy's Voice: Annie, does it hurt to be dead?

    Video Games 
  • 96: Late in the game, Niles starts flashing back to when Sixten was alive before the outbreak hit the island.
  • In a game that revolves around memories, Another Code covers a variety of these.
  • Echo: Secrets of the Lost Cavern has a couple of flashbacks at the beginning of the game. They're of Arok and a shaman artist named Klem.
  • Flashback: The Quest for Identity. In-game flashbacks.
  • In Fredbear and Friends, the player gets to see two flashbacks to a security guard working during the pizzeria's heyday. While the first is playable, the other is just a short cutscene.
  • Halo 3: ODST makes extensive use of this, though technically, it's actually Rookie going through camera recordings, not flashbacks per se, but it still counts.
  • In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, when Price finds out Zakhaev is behind the game's plot, he decides to roll a flashback to explain the guy's background. Players know this as the "All ghillied up" mission.
  • All of the interludes in The Reconstruction. Subverted in that all but one of them are flashbacks to the prologue's cast.
  • Toy Story 3: The story mode is told in this form.
  • In Valkyrie Profile, flashbacks are often used to show the events leading up to the Einherjar's deaths.

    Visual Novels 
  • In Minori's route in Brass Restoration, flashbacks are used much more frequently than needed, often to recap something that happened half a scene ago. Thankfully not as prevalent in other routes.
  • The protagonist’s breakup with Rachel is shown with one of these in Double Homework. In the same flashback, he realizes exactly how he first met Dennis.
  • Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! has flashbacks interspersed between routes as necessary; no single path gives a complete background on the family, with each person's pertinent set of flashbacks happening in their own storyline.
  • A large portion of fault - milestone one is comprised of Rudo and Albas' memories.
  • Many of the scenes in the after-story routes of Princess Evangile are flashbacks to events that took place during the Common Route.

    Web Animation 
  • Discussed in Terrible Writing Advice. J.P. Beaubien suggests using flashbacks in various ways such as making a filler episode. He also suggests to use flashbacks in intrusive and pace-breaking manner.

    Webcomics 
  • Concerned has an mini-arc when Frohman flashes back to his days at Black Mesa, providing arguably the best Lampshade Hanging of this trope ever as the quote for this page.
  • Hello from Halo Head: Chloe had these to her Dark and Troubled Past fairly regularly in early strips.
  • Van Von Hunter plays with this. "You have exceeded the maximum number of flashbacks allowed by the courtroom."
  • In Slightly Damned, when Kieri reads through Darius' diary.
  • Crop up at random intervals as "Reg's Lost Years" in Regular Guy
  • Lampshaded in this Books Don't Work Here strip which starts a Flashback which took place before the Flashback they are already in started.
  • In Endstone numerous: to when Jon tried to destroy the world, how he and Kyri met, facing down Drakyl — etc.
  • Shortpacked! had a character trying to stop flashbacks to avoid drama. She interrupted a flashback mid-sequence, but character continued the same flashback.
  • In Unforgettable, the female lead is in the habit of replaying events that she witnessed earlier in the episode, often finding a clue from something she saw that didn't seem important at the time.
  • This Wapsi Square strip uses a single panel flashback to show what happened last time Fermented Banana played at a wedding.
  • The entire third story arc of The Senkari is basically an extended flashback where Natalie learns some of the titular characters history..
  • Sleepless Domain:
    • In Chapter 3, Undine revisits the scene where her teammates, and very nearly herself, were killed just days ago. As she does, the scene begins to play itself out again in her mind. This time, however, there's one crucial difference that the audience wasn't shown the first time — a mysterious purple entity appeared to taunt her as she lay dying, before slinking away into the shadows.
    • Chapter 9 opens with a flashback sequence showing Undine attempting, unsuccessfully, to make a high-powered water jet with her powers. Said flashback sequence is placed right as Undine successfully manages to pull off the attack in a burst of Herioc Resolve in the present.
    • In Chapter 10, Kokoro reveals her backstory to Undine in the form of a flashback to the night that her mother was killed (as related to her by Mingxing, since Kokoro was too young to remember it herself). This same flashback is continued seven chapters later from Mingxing's own perspective, revealing a part of the story that she never told Kokoro — that Mingxing had burned out her own powers to save Kokoro's life that night.
    • Chapter 13 ends on an ominous cliffhanger, as Tessa discovers a threatening message left on her window just as the scene ends. Several weeks later, when Tessa prepares to finally confront the author of the message, a brief flashback shows the rest of their conversation, revealing the entity's true intentions in contacting her.
  • Split Screen jumps back and forth between Jan and Jeremy's childhood friendship and their strained relationship as adults.
  • Errant Story gets a lot of use out of these, with every main character having at least one, and not a single Happy Flashback to show for the whole bunch of them.
  • Some short poignant ones all over Tower of God. So far there have been flashbacks for Bam, Khun, Anaak, Endorsi, Rachel, Ja Wangnan, Viole, Nia and Hon Akraptor.
  • Animated updates of morphE typically flashback to how one of the seedlings ended up in a crate at the start of the story. The first flashback shows each seedling in torment, the second focuses on one specific seedling and the third shows how they ended up in captivity in the first place.
  • Mario & Luigi: Cleanup Crew: Luigi and Mario briefly appear in the beginning of the first chapter, but the bulk of "A Mess in the Making" is Toad's recollection of the events leading to the current crisis.
  • Inhibit begins with a flashback to when Victor first arrived at Urquhart. Chapter five also includes a flashback to Victor's time at Urquhart and how he met some of the other variants his age.

    Web Original 
  • The British Railway Stories: Episode 10, "The Legacy Of Gadwall", is told mostly through flashbacks to when the titular engine was alive, before he got bombed to pieces in World War II.
    • Episode 18, "The Last Run", has a flashback to all the engines saying their goodbyes before Copley Hill closes down for good.
  • In The Gamer's Alliance, various characters have flashbacks which often explain their past and their relationship with other characters.
  • Unusually for the series, lonelygirl15 episode "Comfort Food" included flashbacks to Daniel's grandmother's funeral. Flashbacks were again used in the series 3 episode "I Miss Her".
  • LG15: the resistance makes frequent use of these to show Maggie's past.
  • Frequently used in The Gungan Council in order to explain why a character has or does something. "It's Not That I Keep Hanging On, I'm Never Letting Go" uses it in spades.
  • Parodied in episode X of Transolar Galactica, when Captain Trigger gets a flashback without the series actually cutting to it.
    Reggie: Oh great, he's having one of his little flashback things.
    ...
    Samson (after half a minute of Trigger staring vacantly into space): ... how long does it take?
  • If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device has quite a few of those:
    • In episode three, Kitten flashes back to the Age of Apostasy to break the monotony of his monologue.
    • In episode five, the Emperor reminiscences of Malcador and how he set up what would later become Inquisition.
    • In episode thirteen, Magnus has two flashbacks, both showing his corruption by Tzeentch.
    • Episode sixteen is largely a huge flashback to the War in Heaven.
    • The short "Why Kitten Hates The Tau" plays with this — it might be a flashback explaining the eponymous matter, or it might be the Emperor trolling Kitten.
  • Funny Business has a flashback right in the middle of the story that manages to double its overall length, and making what would otherwise be an ordinary Plot Twist into an Ass Pull.
  • The Most Stupid Deaths in Super Mario 64: In 'Even More Stupid Deaths', Mario has a flashback to the first time he went on the "slider".
  • Mahu: "Second Chance" sees several flashbacks, not all of which have the Commonwealth as the protagonist.

    Western Animation 
  • Invader Zim also lampshades a common problem with this trope: In "The Fry Cook What Came From All That Space", Zim recalls a flashback of being demoted to fry cook under fry lord Sizz-Lorr, and then escaping. After Zim escapes, it shows Sizz-Lorr alone, shouting at the top of his lungs:
    Sizz-Lorr: I will find you Zim, so help me, I will search the entire universe, and I! WILL! FIND YOOOOOOOOU!
    (Cut back to present time with Zim and Sizz-Lorr)
    Sizz-Lorr: How did you remember what I said if you weren't there?
    Zim: *shrugs*
  • Molly of Denali:
    • In "Wise Raven and Old Crow," Molly has a flashback to when she was little and Grandma Catherine was still alive, and she taught her how to tan hides.
    • "A Song For Lola" features a flashback to when Molly and her family performed a song for Auntie Merna.
  • Night of the Animated Dead: When Ben says he got a truck from a diner, the movie cuts to a scene from earlier showing Ben finding the truck, and encountering some of the chaos caused by the undead.
  • Ninjago often uses flashbacks, for example, to show Wu and Garmadon before the latter became fully evil.
  • On Jimmy Two-Shoes, there have been a few flashbacks about Lucius' life under his father, including the one that made him a Self-Made Orphan.
  • Used a lot in Phineas and Ferb by the character Dr. Doofenshmirtz, since almost all of his inventions have a backstory and he uses flashbacks to let Perry and the audience know the purpose for it. However, there have been some occasions where he'll skip over a flashback since Perry already knows the story, and on one occasion he had a horrible headache and said it hurt too much to do a flashback.
    • In "The Belly of the Beast", Perry was going into a flashback of how he escaped, which Doofensmirtz took advantage of by attacking him.
    • Parodied in "Doof Dynasty", an Elseworld episode set in ancient China, where this discussion occurs about "Master Perry":
      Phineas: What's he doing?
      Ferb: That's a ripple dissolve. He must be having a flashback.
      Phineas:...does he know we can't see it? Should we give him some privacy? I don't know the protocol for flashbacks.
  • South Park: "I'm a Little Bit Country" has Cartman trying to induce a flashback to 1776 so he doesn't have to study history.
    • His first attempt is simply to wonder about that time out loud to set up a transition.
      Cartman: It was so long ago that I don't think it has anything to do with me! [moves his hands around] With me... With... Anything to do with me... With me...
      Kyle: That isn't gonna work, dumbass!
    • Later, he sets up a rock to fall on his head the moment he walks under it while talking about American history, which only makes him fall to the ground half-unconscious.
      Kyle: Cartman? Cartman?!
      Cartman: Benjamin Franklin?
      Kyle: No, turdpants, it's Kyle!
      Cartman: Kyle... Get out of my flashback, you goddamn Jew...
    • The last attempt is to drop himself into a pool alongside a TiVo full of History Channel recordings. This does trigger a flashback, but it's implied it was just a comatose dream after nearly killing himself in a pool of electrified water.
      Kyle: Cartman, you're supposed to be studying, what the hell is all this?!
  • Used frequently in Avatar: The Last Airbender, usually in the form of someone in the present narrating something that happened in the past (like the flashbacks in "The Storm," "The Avatar and the Firelord," and "The Southern Raiders"). "Zuko Alone" and "Appa's Lost Days" have characters who don't or can't talk about their pasts quietly remembering them in the form of flashbacks.
  • The Care Bears Movie is told as this by Mr. Nicholas Cherrywood.
  • Danger Mouse: "The Return Of Count Duckula" uses footage of DM's first encounter with Duckula from "The Four Tasks Of Danger Mouse" as a flashback as he recounts the meeting to Colonel K.
  • The questionable reliability of flashbacks is Played With in the Futurama episode "Mobius Dick", when Farnsworth recalls the earliest days of Planet Express:
    Amy: Zoidberg had hair?
    Farnsworth: I never said he had hair! If you chose to imagine him that way, that's your business!
  • Kaeloo: In Episode 136, a flashback is shown to Kaeloo, Stumpy, Quack Quack and Mr. Cat at school in the same class as little kids. This is despite the fact that other episodes have established that Kaeloo and Mr. Cat are older than the other two.

 
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When curry became a fav food

Bundorio remembers how he grew to accept curry after he arrived on Earth and first met Taiyo.

The Day of God'...

Flashback

Remembering Juz...

Where Akira saw...

Shendu

He the worst

Stolas' Last Ea...

Cool officer

Shrine visit

Giant Pancake

Edd's Hiccups

Ed's Dinosaur Park

Nick Locarno

Bowler Hat Guy'...

YTP - Not My Greg

Loona's Adoption

Ange faces the ...

Amphibia - The ...

John remembers ...

The Death of Al...

Galactic Counci...

Mirabel doesn't...

Craig Turdmigan

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When curry became a fav food

Bundorio remembers how he grew to accept curry after he arrived on Earth and first met Taiyo.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / Flashback

Media sources:

Report

When curry beca...

The Day of God'...

Flashback

Remembering Juz...

Where Akira saw...

Shendu

He the worst

Stolas' Last Ea...

Cool officer

Shrine visit

Giant Pancake

Edd's Hiccups

Ed's Dinosaur Park

Nick Locarno

Bowler Hat Guy'...

YTP - Not My Greg

Loona's Adoption

Ange faces the ...

Amphibia - The ...

John remembers ...

The Death of Al...

Galactic Counci...

Mirabel doesn't...

Craig Turdmigan