History Main / NeverTheSelvesShallMeet

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' worlds, having two of the same individual in the same dimension will eventually result in a universe-destroying paradox. This was first discovered in "Two Good To Be True" as a result of two versions of Knuckles hanging around. Later, in "Where Have All The Sonics Gone?", Morpho made sure to send their Sonic to a dimension where there were no other Sonics to avoid this happening. [[spoiler:Later, when Shadow decides to "to heck with everything" in "Eggman: The Video Game", he intentionally takes Eggman and his Lord Eggman counterpart prisoner in order to create an anomaly]].

* In the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' video "Gather Together! Goku's World" that was released for the Terebikko, Goku meets with his younger self when the gang were time traveling. Trunks stops Goku from interacting with his younger self to prevent a paradox.
* In the manga version of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' and in ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal'', during the TimeTravel to the thirtieth century, the titular character feels faint in the presence of her future self, Neo-Queen Serenity, and her body becomes transparent; her Silver Crystal also loses its power under the influence of its future counterpart. At the end of this story arc, Neo-Queen Serenity tries to resist the temptation of talking to her past self, since it may result in the history being changed... fails, and goes to meet Sailor Moon anyway for some seconds. The story also involved Prince Demand attempting to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt bring the world to an end]] by bringing together the two Silver Crystals, [[spoiler:which is stopped by Pluto [[TimeStandStill stopping time]] [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of her own life]].]] Interestingly, in ''Stars'' it appears that the selves ''can'' meet, if one of them is (supposedly) from an alternate distant future and in disguise. Possibly.
* Played straight in ''Manga/KimagureOrangeRoad''. Touching one's past self will cause the future version to dissolve. It's never really explained exactly what happens to the future self but it gets shelved under "a bad idea to try". [[spoiler:It ''almost'' happens to Madoka in the TV series, when she befriends her younger self during an accidental trip to the past, but right when little!Madoka and big!Madoka are about to shake hands, little!Madoka's big sister calls out to her and they don't touch.]]

* In the ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' story arc ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'', this trope is applied to versions of people and objects from parallel universes. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, the [[FightingSpirit Stand]] of the BigBad [[spoiler:[[PresidentEvil Funny Valentine]]]], specifically protects him from the effects of this, but also allows him to use it against his enemies.
** Even after his defeat, the final enemy [[spoiler:an alternate Di(eg)o Brando]] still meets his end through this rule [[spoiler:courtesy of Lucy Steel and the decapitated head of the main universe Diego]].

** ''[[VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureEyesOfHeaven Eyes Of Heaven]]'' zigzags this, as the story has the young Joseph Joestar from ''Part 2'' meeting up with his older self from ''Part 3'', yet nothing comes of it. When the group encounters [[spoiler:Funny Valentine]] and he demonstrates this fact with a gun Johnny Joestar was hiding, young Joseph points out he came in contact with his older self but didn't disappear. [[spoiler:Funny Valentine]] explains that it only applies to people from different universes, not to people from different points of time.

* In a ''Literature/SonicTheHedgehogInTheFourthDimension'', older and younger selves could co-exist, but not touch: if they did, they melted together somewhat painfully to become one self. Sonic did this ("Now I'm twice as cool"). He also did this with the evil [[MirrorUniverse anti-Sonic]], [[SdrawkcabName Cinos]], causing some alarm as to whether good or evil would win out in the resulting Sonic. [[spoiler:Good won.]] Imaginary creatures [[InTheirOwnImage threatening to rewrite history]] kept people from asking too many questions. Still, at the end, it was two positive Sonics plus one negative Cinos, which should equal one positive Sonic.

** In ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea Episode 2'', Elizabeth is [[spoiler:briefly in Columbia at the same time as her and Booker's past selves]]. Booker inquires what will happen if the run into themselves, but Elizabeth claims it's impossible, because they didn't last time.

* In ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' the moment when two incarnations of the Soul Reaver meet a paradox is created, and the resulting distortion of the timestream allows to make changes in history, which is usually written in stone, this happened four times in the games. [[spoiler:This becomes especially important when Raziel's future self is revealed to be soul trapped inside the Soul Reaver, as said soul becomes the wraithblade in ''Soul Reaver'', which Raziel wields - meaning Raziel is using ''himself'' as a weapon, making him a walking paradox that everyone is trying to manipulate in order to ScrewDestiny in their own favor.]]

* VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog has generally avoided this in his games.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' has the quote at the top of this page. It doesn't seem to happen as Cave Johnson "Prime" meets and befriends "Dark" Cave Johnson, a Cave from a universe [[BizarreAlienBiology "where they breathe methane and eat asparagus"]] and the universe remains unharmed[[note]]Though to be fair, that's a parallel universe, "which apparently has nothing to do with time travel," and they don't actually [[ExactWords "meet"]], at least, not in person...[[/note]]

* Used as a plot point in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ'' 2, albeit with dimensional travel rather than time. Under the physical laws of the multiverse, a person cannot travel to any parallel world where a version of themselves is already present; when the heroes from ''SRWZ 1'' travel to the new world, the [[Anime/MazingerZ Mazinger]] [[Anime/GreatMazinger Team]] and the [[Manga/GetterRobo Getter Team]] get left behind since the ''Z 2'' world already has the ''Anime/ShinMazinger'' and ''Getter Robo Armageddon'' versions of them. The rest of the heroes didn't realize this until they met the parallel Mazinger and Getter Teams and started asking questions about their allies, which naturally they couldn't answer.

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** ''[[VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureEyesOfHeaven]]'' zigzags this, as the story has the young Joseph Joestar from ''Part 2'' meeting up with his older self from ''Part 3'', yet nothing comes of it. When the group encounters [[spoiler:Funny Valentine]] and he demonstrates this fact with a gun Johnny Joestar was hiding, young Joseph points out he came in contact with his older self but didn't disappear. [[spoiler:Funny Valentine]] explains that it only applies to people from different universes, not to people from different points of time.

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': Downplayed. [[{{TimePolice}} The Commission]] explicitly advises against two versions of a person existing in close proximity within the same timeline. While the universe doesn't collapse, both versions would go through "The Seven Stages of Paradox Psychosis," which start at denial before devolving into homicidal rage. [[spoiler:In an act of desperation, Five meets his "older" (techinically younger) self in order to steal the latter's briefcase so the rest of the Academy can return to 2019. HilarityEnsues when they both descend into madness and attempt to kill each other (thankfully they don't, as it would cause a GrandfatherParadox).

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': Downplayed. While the universe doesn't collapse, [[{{TimePolice}} The Commission]] explicitly advises against two versions of a person meeting. If one does, both versions would go through "The Seven Stages," which start at denial before devolving into homicidal rage.

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': A downplayed version of this trope happens. While the universe doesn't collapse, [[{{TimePolice}} The Commission]] explicity advises against two versions of a person meeting. If one does, both versions would go through "The Seven Stages," which start at denial before devolving into homicidal rage.

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': A downplayed version of this trope happens. While the universe doesn't collapse,[[{{TimePolice}} The Commission]] explicity advises against two versions of a person meeting. If one does, both versions would go through "The Seven Stages," which start at denial before devolving into homicidal rage.

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': A downplayed version of this trope happens. While the universe doesn't collapse, The Commission explicity advises against two versions of a person meeting. If one does, both versions would go through "The Seven Stages," which start at denial before devolving into homicidal rage.

* In the manga version of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' and in ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal'', during the TimeTravel to the thirtieth century, the titular character feels faint in the presence of her future self, Neo-Queen Serenity, and her body becomes transparent; her Silver Crystal also loses its power under the influence of its future counterpart. At the end of this story arc, Neo-Queen Serenity tries to resist the temptation of talking to her past self, since it may result in the history being changed... fails, and goes to meet Sailor Moon anyway for some seconds. The story also involved Prince Demand attempting to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt bring the world to an end]] by bringing together the two Silver Crystals, [[spoiler: which is stopped by Pluto [[TimeStandStill stopping time]] [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of her own life]].]] Interestingly, in ''Stars'' it appears that the selves ''can'' meet, if one of them is (supposedly) from an alternate distant future and in disguise. Possibly.
* Played straight in ''Manga/KimagureOrangeRoad''. Touching one's past self will cause the future version to dissolve. It's never really explained exactly what happens to the future self but it gets shelved under "a bad idea to try". [[spoiler: It ''almost'' happens to Madoka in the TV series, when she befriends her younger self during an accidental trip to the past, but right when little!Madoka and big!Madoka are about to shake hands, little!Madoka's big sister calls out to her and they don't touch.]]

** Actually, at the end of the [[spoiler:TYL!]] arc, we find out that [[spoiler: the TYL! Vongola guardians are being kept in some weird capsule thingy but do see/talk to their past selves.]] Although they were admittedly in what could have been a [[spoiler: separate pocket dimension created by the current BigBad 's men]].

* In the ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' story arc ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'', this trope is applied to versions of people and objects from parallel universes. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, the [[FightingSpirit Stand]] of the BigBad [[spoiler: [[PresidentEvil Funny Valentine]]]], specifically protects him from the effects of this, but also allows him to use it against his enemies.
** Even after his defeat, the final enemy ([[spoiler:an alternate Di(eg)o Brando]]) still meets his end through this rule [[spoiler: courtesy of Lucy Steel and the decapitated head of the main universe Diego]].

* Exploited in ''Fanfic/JonathanJoestarTheFirstJoJo''. [[spoiler: While in Cairo, Jotaro and Jonathan find a pair of DIO's bracelets. During the final battle, they come into contact with Heaven Ascension Dio's own bracelets in order to stop him from using The World Over Heaven's [[RealityWarper ability]].]]

* In ''Fanfic/CarpeNoctem'', a Harry Potter fanfiction, [[spoiler: because Hermione accidentally lets her past self see her future self while time-traveling, a disruption in the space-time continuum occurs]].

* There was a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic which involved Rainbow Dash travelling in time to set herself and Applejack up. Eventually, because of this, she, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle are all jumping through time trying to make sure the right versions of themselves meet at the right time. It ends up with several dozen of each pony getting very confused. [[spoiler: And then [[FromBadToWorse Scootaloo gets caught up too...]]]]
* In ''Fanfic/OnACrossAndArrow'', there's dimensional travel replacing time travel. Twilight ended up accidentally sending the Mane Six into an alternate dimension where everyone is gender-swapped versions of themselves. She feared that if they met their alternate selves, they would explode or something. [[spoiler: Thankfully, this isn't the case in the slightest.]]
* In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'', during the [[BadFuture Dark World]] arc when Twilight meets Minty Pie, there's a variation where [[spoiler: both of them are reincarnations of G3 Minty [[note]]Twilight is Minty's "Light" (her soul) while Minty Pie is her "Shadow" (her physical appearance)[[/note]]]]. Due to this unusual variation, they're able to interact fine, without any problems, but when they make physical contact [[spoiler: they start to ''fuse together'']] which pretty much {{Mind Rape}}s them both. Fortunately, they break apart in time to avoid anything permanent, and while shaken, they're fine afterwards.

* This may happen to you in "Dimension of Doom", one of the ''Star Challenge'' books. You can end in a planet crammed with [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]] and a {{Cyborg}} half-human and half-robot [[spoiler: asking about him, he replies he's you in a future after being combined with your robotic companion. Accept your destiny and he'll [[RetGone disappear]]. Attempt to change your fate and you'll become that Cyborg (bad ending)]]

** In the sequel ''The Urth of the New Sun'', [[spoiler: Severian dies but some equally real duplicates of him are created. When one of them meets Severian through time travel, the duplicate explodes]].

* In a ''Literature/SonicTheHedgehogInTheFourthDimension'', older and younger selves could co-exist, but not touch: if they did, they melted together somewhat painfully to become one self. Sonic did this ("Now I'm twice as cool"). He also did this with the evil [[MirrorUniverse anti-Sonic]], [[SdrawkcabName Cinos]], causing some alarm as to whether good or evil would win out in the resulting Sonic. [[spoiler: Good won.]] Imaginary creatures [[InTheirOwnImage threatening to rewrite history]] kept people from asking too many questions. Still, at the end, it was two positive Sonics plus one negative Cinos, which should equal one positive Sonic.

* ''Series/TwelveMonkeys'': {{Invoked}} by Cole in the pilot, and played with when he brings both the 2015 and 2043 versions of Cassandra's wristwatch together. [[spoiler: The result is a 'paradox', depicted here as a slowing down of time in the immediate vicinity that affects everyone present except Cole]].
** This becomes a plot point in Season 2, as the Messengers -- the Twelve Monkeys' SuperSoldiers -- hijack the Project Splinter time machine and use it to go back in time to [[spoiler: kill the Primaries (humans who act as {{Cosmic Keystone}}s maintaining time) with weapons made from their own bones, creating {{Reality Breaking Paradox}}es to try and collapse time.]]
* This trope gets smashed into the ground with the character of Martin Summers in ''Series/AshesToAshes2008''. Then again, in the light of the finale, [[spoiler: whether it ''actually'' applies is debatable]].

** [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] starts with three incarnations of the Doctor meeting up thanks to [[spoiler:the Moment]] opening rips in space-time. The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors meet the War Doctor, a previously-unmentioned incarnation that existed between the Eighth and Ninth Doctors who renounced his name during the Time War. [[spoiler:In the end, ''all'' thirteen incarnations meet at a single point in time to put Gallifrey into another dimension, including the as-yet-nonexistent Twelfth Doctor]]. However, it's specifically mentioned that only the Eleventh Doctor ([[spoiler:and the Twelfth]]) will remember this happening, as the events are asynchronous with the timelines of the earlier Doctors.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Averted in [[Recap/TheFlash2014S1E23FastEnough "Fast Enough"]]. [[spoiler: At the scene of his mom's murder, ''three'' versions of Barry Allen were actually present -- his present self, his future self, and his child self. While Kid!Barry was whisked away too quickly to recognize either of them as himself, Present!Barry and Future!Barry make eye contact and recognize each other.]] Somehow, this doesn't break reality. Also happens later, when Barry deliberately travels back in time to [[spoiler:get help with the speed equation from Eobard Thawne. At the end of the episode, Past!Flash ends up helping Present!Flash get back home. The season 2 finale ends with Barry traveling back to his mother's murder ''again'', but this time, he stops it, causing the Barry from the season 1 finale to dissolve into thin air]]. In Season 3, Barry travels to the future in order to discover [[spoiler:Savitar's identity and meets his gloomy future self]]. Then there's TheReveal that [[spoiler:Savitar has been Barry's future time remnant all this time]].

** TheMovie's BigBad is ''another'' future version of Sougo[[note]]Officially written in all English capitals, "SOUGO"[[/note]], separate and distinct from Ohma Zi-O, who used the original as a decoy for his plan to reset the Heisei era because he believes it to be "ugly". Ohma Zi-O actually intercedes to loan Sougo a portion of his power (giving him a movie-exclusive powerup) so he can defeat their common enemy.

* ''Series/SomedayOrOneDay'': [[spoiler: [[MentalTimeTravel Xie Zhi Qi]], in [[FamilialBodySnatcher his brother Xie Zhong Ru's]] body, talks to his younger self and encourages his [[InsaneEqualsViolent unstable tendencies]].]] In adulthood, [[spoiler: Zhi Qi goes back in time to his brother's body, where he murders people and [[StableTimeLoop encourages his younger self, and so on...]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' the moment when two incarnations of the Soul Reaver meet a paradox is created, and the resulting distortion of the timestream allows to make changes in history, which is usually written in stone, this happened four times in the games. [[spoiler: This becomes especially important when Raziel's future self is revealed to be soul trapped inside the Soul Reaver, as said soul becomes the wraithblade in ''Soul Reaver'', which Raziel wields - meaning Raziel is using ''himself'' as a weapon, making him a walking paradox that everyone is trying to manipulate in order to ScrewDestiny in their own favor.]]

** Averted in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations''. The entire gimmick of the game revolves around both Classic and Modern Sonics (and they meet up rather quickly.) In addition, there is also a meeting up of Classic and Modern Tails [[spoiler: and Classic and Modern Eggman - who both pilot the final boss.]]

* A non-paradox version of this in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is the stated reason the [[KidFromTheFuture Kids From The Future]] leave once their present selves are born; they don't want to live with their present selves because it would negatively impact their childhoods. Averted for [[spoiler:Lucina]], [[spoiler:Noire]] and [[spoiler: Severa]]: the first is already born and briefly meets her baby self, the second stays with her present self to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong right her extremely complicated relationship with her mother]], and the third ''does'' leave but is said to drop by once in a while to check on her parents. ([[spoiler: Though if ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' is to be believed, she eventually ''does'' leave with Owain and Inigo so they can reach Nohr. ''Then again'', both ''Awakening'' and ''Fates'' have alternate universes within their stories, so it's likely that the Severa of one world left with her Owain and her Inigo, whereas another Severa stayed in Ylisse.]])

* Surprisingly averted in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', which most of its plot consists of time travelling. [[AnimatedArmor Hakumen]], comes from an alternate timeline which was similar to the canon one the series takes place in, save for a few major details changed. He makes his way to the canon storyline by being flung back in time 100 years prior to the beginning of the first game and becoming one of the world's legendary heroes. His story path in the first game reveals he [[spoiler: is the reincarnation of the series` deuteragonist, Jin Kisaragi]]. The two have encountered each other quite a few times throughout the series, but there doesn't seem to be any adverse affects of this trope happening. [[spoiler:The fact that the armor is designed to work ''without'' the risk of paradoxes occurring may have something to do with it.]]

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'' has this as a rule with the prime and fractured dimensions. The prime version can encounter its fractured version in one of those dimensions just fine and not suffer any consequences; however, if the fractured version encounters the prime version in the prime dimension, the fractured self disappears. [[spoiler: In the case of Alternate Milla, her appearing in the prime dimension is what is preventing Prime Milla from reappearing. It's only when Alternate Milla sacrifices herself, that the other may appear.]]

* One of the big issues in the first time travel arc of ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy'', when several of the main characters end up back in the time when they were in high school. But it's easy to find the young Casey and Andy, since you only have to [[spoiler: look for the biggest explosion.]]

* In ''Webcomic/FrankieAndStein'', Shelly claims that if they meet themselves in the future, their [[YourHeadASplode heads will explode]]. Later, [[spoiler: she and Stein meet their future selves, and future Shelly disproves this theory and tells them to calm down, subverting this trope quite nicely.]]

* In WebVideo/ImAMarvelAndImADC, [[spoiler: Lex Luthor]] explains away a potential plot hole by explaining this trope. Lampshaded by [[MediumAwareness Deadpool]], of course.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] starts with three incarnations of the Doctor meeting up thanks to [[spoiler:the Moment]] opening rips in space-time. The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors meet the War Doctor, a previously-unmentioned incarnation that existed between the Eighth and Ninth Doctors who renounced his name during the Time War. [[spoiler:It's taken UpToEleven at the end, when ''all'' thirteen incarnations meet at a single point in time to put Gallifrey into another dimension, including the as-yet-nonexistent Twelfth Doctor]]. However, it's specifically mentioned that only the Eleventh Doctor ([[spoiler:and the Twelfth]]) will remember this happening, as the events are asynchronous with the timelines of the earlier Doctors.

* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'': Jumba invented a time machine and installed a paradox inhibitor to prevent its users from meeting past selves. The users would basically rewind time. Lilo and Stitch once forgot to use the inhibitor and met their past selves but no disaster seems to have happened from it.

** Inverted in the ''Portal 2'' GameMod ''Thinking with Time Machine'', where the player has to bring a duplicate of their past self to the future to solve puzzles.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon "Fugitive of the Judoon"]]: Gat is outraged when she realizes that [[spoiler:Ruth and Thirteen are both incarnations of the Doctor, fearing the damage having two of the same Time Lord so close to each other could do to the timeline.]] And later, when [[spoiler:Ruth drops Thirteen back in Gloucester, she cites the same reason for not letting her TARDIS get too close to Thirteen's.]]

** In the ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis: Legion of 3 Worlds'' miniseries, Superboy-Prime punches his future self, causing both selves to dematerialize and disappear.

* ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': Having discovered the identity of Superhoodie to be [[future!Simon]], Alisha is warned not to tell anyone else. Since everybody is still curious as to his identity, she awkwardly tries to convince them to leave him alone.

* The ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "The Alternative Factor" involves two identical men named Lazarus. One is from our universe and insane. The other is from an anti-matter universe. Apparently, if both meet in the same universe, it destroys both of them. No explanation was given why the anti-matter Lazarus didn't blow up upon contact with any matter from our universe. The episode ends in a FridgeLogic moment where Kirk traps the two between universes, so they can fight it out for eternity. Apparently no one thought of killing or imprisoning the insane one.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysWorld https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/annotation_2020_08_14_164728_3.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Well, that's ''one'' way to end the game.]]

* In the season finale of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'', the Warden goes back in time to his own trial to save himself, and by the simple act of hugging his past self, causes the very fabric of reality to completely and utterly fall apart.