Two champions cut down in their prime Often a show will have a situation that is a repetition of something that happened previously within the show's history. Almost always used as either a Running Gag or a tragic Vicious Cycle. There are some films where they deal with the world repeating over and over, e.
Groundhog Day , the similar film , and the Eternal Recurrence phenomenon. But this trope happens when history repeats itself without a "Groundhog Day" Loop. A common example will be for a show about kids to have the children experience something, and then have the adults in the show respond by reminiscing about when the exact same thing happened to them at that age.
Sometimes there is a flashback. If the adults are the main characters and the same thing occurs, this becomes Generation Xerox. Or it can happen in an adult show where the characters have had flashbacks to show some of the older characters' backstories, and then you have an episode that focuses on the younger characters who experienced the same thing.
Can also be used just with a character repeating the exact same experience as another character did previously sometimes in an earlier episode. The new victim might have boasted about how much better he would have handled it, expect An Aesop on how we should be less critical of "The Man in The Arena".
Or he might just handle it perfectly, making the first victim hate him even more. When it applies only to a Stock Phrase , it's probably an Ironic Echo.
