History Main / BadPresent

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise Yesterday's Enterprise]], has the ''Enterprise'''s most recent namesake get brought forward from the past due to a NegativeSpaceWedgie. The very act of the ''Enterprise'' C not being where she was supposed to be, [[HeroicSacrifice destroyed in battle in four-to-one odds defending a Klingon colony from the Romulans]], means that the Federation and the Klingon Empire have spent the last two decades at war, which the Federation is on the verge of losing entirely.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_(The_Twilight_Zone) Once Upon a Time]]" (1960). A janitor from 1890 is sent to 1960 via a time helmet. He finds it much noisier and hectic (including having to dodge cars in the street), finds the prices much higher, is almost arrested by a policeman, etc. He eventually escapes back to the past, which he finds much better.

* Played with in ''{{Nodwick}}'', where a time traveler from the heavily {{Magitek}} past arrives in the current feudal world [[spoiler:(only to find out it was bringing his date-minder through the time portal that hosed his "future".]]

* In ''BackToTheFuture'', Marty [=McFly=] figures out he's returned to his own time when he notices a filthy bum sleeping on the park bench.

* In ''Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?'', when the Comicbook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}} visits {{Superman}} just before what is likely to be his last battle, they bring {{Supergirl}} with them. Since the story is set post-Crisis (but before the new continuity kicked in), Supergirl is dead in the "present", and Superman tells this version of Supergirl that his Supergirl "is in the past," without specifying that it's not on a mission as the visitor thinks.

->''"I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."''

As an example, let's say that we have a story with a Japanese {{Samurai}} that [[FishOutOfWater arrives in the present from 200 years in the past]]. He'd probably be shocked to learn that Japanese culture has largely been replaced by Westernization, and that Japan surrendered to the United States after WorldWar2. Modern citizens of Japan have largely moved on, but someone from an earlier era might see this as their BadFuture.

* In ''Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?'', when the {{Legion Of Super-Heroes}} visits {{Superman}} just before what is likely to be his last battle, they bring {{Supergirl}} with them. Since the story is set post-Crisis (but before the new continuity kicked in), Supergirl is dead in the "present", and Superman tells this version of Supergirl that his Supergirl "is in the past," without specifying that it's not on a mission as the visitor thinks.

[[AC:{{Tabletop Games}}]]

----

* In ''"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"'', when the {{Legion Of Super-Heroes}} visits {{Superman}} just before what is likely to be his last battle, they bring {{Supergirl}} with them. Since the story is set post-Crisis (but before the new continuity kicked in), Supergirl is dead in the "present", and Superman tells this version of Supergirl that his Supergirl "is in the past," without specifying that it's not on a mission as the visitor thinks.

* Given the time-travel shenanigans that ''FengShui'' characters get involved in, it's entirely possible to come back to a present that is completely unlike what it was like when you left it, particularly if a Critical Shift went down while you were gone.

* In his title series, [[MarvelUniverse Nova]] meets his ex-lover Namorita, who is dead in the present, while the two of them are ripped through time. Namorita is blissfully unaware of anything that happens in the future, including the fact that she and Nova were no long a couple long before her death, and that she is one of the parties blamed for the deaths of hundreds of innocents.

* ''TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_(The_Twilight_Zone) Once Upon a Time]]" (1960). A janitor from 1890 is sent to 1960 via a time helmet. He finds it much noisier and hectic (including having to dodge cars in the street), finds the prices much higher, is almost arrested by a policeman, etc. He eventually escapes back to the past, which he finds much better.

* In his titular series, [[MarvelUniverse Nova]] meets his ex-lover Namorita, who is dead in the present, while the two of them are ripped through time. Namorita is blissfully unaware of anything that happens in the future, including the fact that she and Nova were no long a couple long before her death, and that she is one of the parties blamed for the deaths of hundreds of innocents.

* ''CallahansCrosstimeSaloon'' short story "The Time Traveler" (1973): An American is imprisoned by a South American dictatorship in 1963 and released in 1973. When he gets back to the United States, he finds society radically changed due to events in the 1960s and suffers from "transplant shock" so severe that he tries to commit suicide.

* In one arc in the ''GreenLantern'' comic, Hal Jordan is brought to the present era and learns that not only has Coast City been destroyed, not only is the Corps dead, but the latter was his own doing as part of a massive FaceHeelTurn.

* In the IntercontinuityCrossover ''{{JLA-Avengers}}'' when they discover their {{Silver Age}}y joined universe isn't "real" they get a glimpse of the real two universes, and Hal Jordan & Barry Allen are especially [[{{Understatement}} disappointed]] about being dead, and in Jordan's case learning that he destroyed the Corps and Coast City. Both still want to fix things to the way they should be though, becuase that's the right thing to do.

A variation of the BadFuture trope in which the present ''IS'' the future for someone. This is distinct from [[AfterTheEnd stories set in a Bad Future]] because the status quo is LikeRealityUnlessNoted. {{AlternateTimeline}}s and {{AlternateUniverse}}s are likewise separate tropes. [[AlternateHistory Alternate Histories]] can be compatible, though.

'''[[NoRealLifeExamplesPlease No real life examples, please]]. There is no need to start a [[FlameWar]] over an example.'''

Not to be confused with [[IGotARock horrible gifts]].

'''No RealLife Examples, please. That's just [[RuleofCautiousEditingJudgment asking for trouble]].'''

Could be the result of ValuesDissonance or when stories turn DarkerAndEdgier. For some reason, bad guys [[AntagonistsAssimilate never seem bothered by this]].

* CaptainAmerica is the freaking [[MostTriumphantExample KING]] of this trope. ''Every'' incarnation of Captain America uses this trope to some degree or another, but [[UltimateMarvel Ultimate Cap]] is probably the most apparent.

* How could we forget ''InfiniteCrisis''? As {{Superman}} of [[{{Multiverse}} Earth-Two]] says, "we saved the wrong Earth!"

* In ''"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"'', when the LegionOfSuperheroes visits {{Superman}} just before what is likely to be his last battle, they bring {{Supergirl}} with them. Since the story is set post-Crisis (but before the new continuity kicked in), Supergirl is dead in the "present", and Superman tells this version of Supergirl that his Supergirl "is in the past," without specifying that it's not on a mission as the visitor thinks.

* In ''TheTwelve'', a bunch of WorldWar2 superheroes get put in statis as they're trying to prevent a Nazi operation. When they wake up (in 2009), they're very disoriented to say the least: one guy can't understand the concept of mixed-race marriages, another tries a career as a humorist relying on offensive stereotypes seventy years out of date, one tries to get to his old job as a journalist (and has never heard of the Internet), one who has SuperHearing now has to deal with all the wireless broadcasts (phones, TV, radio...), etc.