History Main / TheConstant

** Captain Jack Harkness has also become ''the'' constant for the universe. [[Immortality: He can never die. He can never stop existing.]] [[spoiler: And now, [[TorchWood Rex]] [[MiracleDay Matheson ]]seems to have joined him]].

** Captain Jack Harkness has also become ‘’the’’ constant for the universe. [[Immortality: He can never die. He can never stop existing.]] [[spoiler: And now, [[TorchWood Rex]] [[MiracleDay Matheson ]]seems to have joined him]].

** Captain Jack Harkness has also become ‘’the’’ constant for the universe. [[Immortality He can never die. He can never stop existing.]] [[spoiler: And now, [[TorchWood Rex]] [[MiracleDay Matheson ]]seems to have joined him]].

* {{RobertRankin}}'s Brentford series has Professor Slocombe, who is implied to have been Merlin and have worked with Sherlock Holmes. Also, the Flying Swan, which shows up on 15th century maps. Ironically, the real-life pub the Flying Swan is based on, the Bricklayer's Arms, has since been closed and turned into housing.

* Happens from time to time in ''DoctorWho'' due to its time-travel nature. A significant example comes during the last episode of the new Series 5, [[spoiler: where events are put into place that makes Amy Pond the constant for the entire universe.]]

** The same idea occurs with all the other series of ''StarTrek'' as well, with a character from a preceding series showing up in the first episode of the new series (Picard in ''DeepSpaceNine'', Quark in ''[[StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', Spock (and a reference to an Admiral Archer) in [[Film/StarTrek the reboot]]. ''{{Enterprise}}'' due to taking place earliest in the continuity used Zefram Cochrane from ''[[StarTrekFirstContact Star Trek: First Contact]]''.
** In the two-part ''NextGeneration'' episode "Time's Arrow" the long-lived Guinan is the link between times (along with Data's severed head).

Frequently the work will go out of its way to make a point of The Constant, and in our examples we focus on these intentional, obvious Constants. If the time-traveling character didn't realize they were in the same place until discovering The Constant, it might be a PlanetOfTheApesEnding.

Compare PlanetOfTheApesEnding, MonumentalDamageResistance. Often invokes NeverRecycleABuilding.

* Similarly to the ''{{Discworld}}'' example above, an AlternateUniverse version in the fourth ''{{Shrek}}'' film. Shrek ends up in a version of the world where he was never born, so he never rescued Fiona, so his kids were never born. The one piece of his old life he still has is his daughter's squeaky ogre doll, which serves virtually the same function as [[ItsAWonderfulLife Zuzu's petals]].

** Vime's cigar case in ''Discworld/NightWatch''.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' has several Constants: the subterranean ruins of New York, the pizzeria where Fry used to work, the various [[PeopleJars heads of celebrities preserved in jars]], and so on. The biggest one is probably [[spoiler:Nibbler, who was responsible for Fry being frozen a thousand years earlier]]. And Fry's dog...who we'll skip over before we start to [[TearJeaker tear up]].

* In the movie ''[=~Pokémon 4Ever~=]'', the young woman Sammy meets is an old woman 40 years later when he meets her after a time trip.
* When the [[HumanPopsicle de-frosted]] ([[DefrostingIceQueen on two levels]]) amnesiac [[CowboyBebop Faye Valentine]] returns to Earth, she meets an old classmate of hers, now an old lady.

* The Clock Tower in ''BackToTheFuture'' in a major example of this trope, as it appears under construction in 1885, working just fine in 1955, broken and run-down in 1985, transformed into a casino-hotel in 1985A, and as a piece of high-tech modern art in 2015.

* In the Guy Pierce version of ''TheTimeMachine'', he meets an AI librarian from the New York Public Library who is still there in the overgrown, unrecognizable ruins of New York thousands of years later.

* [[TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Marvin the Android]] serves as TheConstant in ''The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe'' (both the book and the place) over a few hundred million years. He's understandably bitter about it.

* In Katharine Kerr's {{Deverry}} series:
** In ''Daggerspell'', a battle is fought among the ruins of a fortress at the edge of the grasslands. Several books later, we are shown in ''A Time of Exile'', in a story set a few hundred years prior, how the building of that fortress started a small war, and why it was abandoned.
*** Brangwen's grave is another straight example.

* In {{Idiocracy}} a "Fuddrucker's" restaurant serves as the constant. After 500 years of increasing stupidity the name has gradually changed to "Buttfucker's."
** Oddly, it retains its status as a family restaurant, while Starbucks, H&R Block, and several other businesses have become brothels.

* {{RobertRankin}}'s Brentford series has Professor Slocombe, who is implied to have been Merlin and have worked with Sherlock Holmes. Also, the Flying Swan, which shows up on 15th century maps.
** Ironically, the real-life pub the Flying Swan is based on, the Bricklayer's Arms, has since been closed and turned into housing.

* In the {{Bolo}} story "The Night of the Trolls" by KeithLaumer, the protagonist comes out of a long stretch as a HumanPopsicle to find that society has collapsed. The first friendly person he meets in the new world is an old man who turns out to be the last living person he knew in his old life, having been a very small child then.
* The old Hermit in ACanticleForLeibowitz, though his immortality is never explained.

* Although there's no TimeTravel involved, [=McCoy=] appears in "Encounter at Farpoint", the first episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', as a reminder that the two series take place in the same universe but different times.
** The same idea occurs with all the other series of StarTrek as well, with a character from a preceding series showing up in the first episode of the new series (Picard in ''DeepSpaceNine'', Quark in ''[[StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', Spock (and a reference to an Admiral Archer) in [[Film/StarTrek the reboot]]. ''{{Enterprise}}'' due to taking place earliest in the continuity used Zefram Cochrane from ''[[StarTrekFirstContact Star Trek: First Contact]]''.

** And don't forget the ''Next Generation'' two-parter 'Unification', created for an anniversary and featuring [=Spock=], deliberatly used to link the past and the present.

* Leene's Bell in ''ChronoTrigger''.
** And the Black Omen, later in the game (but previously chronologically).
** As well as the Sun Cave, and the Nu. And, of course, Lavos.

* The video game series ''LegacyOfKain'' has the nine Pillars of Nosgoth, while they don't remain in a constant state (the ruination of the pillars is a major plot point) they remain as a constant on the landscape of the environment and a general marker for the time period.
** And along with the Pillars, Ariel's soul is present in every game but ''Blood Omen 2'', and her state (bound to the Pillars) ''is'' constant, a reminder of Kain's decision not to sacrifice himself.

* In ''DayOfTheTentacle'', the same house exists for over 400 years, from the days of the FoundingFathers to the future where the tentacles have taken over the world, although it's much more metallic in the future. Also, many objects in the house can be found in more than one time period. This is often used by the main characters to affect one or more future time periods. For example, since only inanimate objects can be passed through the [[OurTimeMachinesAreDifferent Chron-O-John]], the only way to send a hamster to Laverne in the future is to put it in the [[HumanPopsicle freezer]], which is still around 200 years from now. Apparently, no one has bothered to look inside in all this time.
* TheLegendOfZelda games''OcarinaOfTime'' and ''OracleOfAges'' play with this trope a lot. It's possible the Deku tree is an example across the games, if the one in Wind Waker is the same one in Ocarina. (More likely, it's the tree that grew out of the Deku Sprout, since the old one died.)

* Similar to Avatar but across a much longer time period, there is an episode of ''SamuraiJack'' where Jack visits a temple he had been to in the past. Not only do the martial artist students practice the same traditions, but there is even a monk there, thousands and thousands of years old, that Jack met when he was there.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' has several Constants: the subterranean ruins of New York, the pizzeria where Fry used to work, the various [[PeopleJars heads of celebrities preserved in jars]], and so on. The biggest one is probably [[spoiler:Nibbler, who was responsible for Fry being frozen a thousand years earlier]].
** Don't forget [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Fry's dog]].
*** [[TearJerker I wish I could...I wish I could...]]
** And Applied Cryogenics, which somehow manages to survive for 1000 years without a power failure (or apocalyptic destruction), despite the "No Power Failures Since 1997" sign on the wall in the pilot episode.
*** Which becomes a wall banger when you remember that you see the world get reduced to medieval levels twice during that time.
**** The first movie shows us that at least one of those alien invaders was really Bender. So, perhaps he just didn't feel like killing his best friend. Either that, or the paradox-correcting time code simply made him miss.

* Similarly to the Discworld one above, an AlternateUniverse version in the fourth {{Shrek}} film. Shrek ends up in a version of the world where he was never born, so he never rescued Fiona, so his kids were never born. The one piece of his old life he still has is his daughter's squeaky ogre doll.
** Which serve virtually the same function as [[ItsAWonderfulLife Zuzu's petals]].

[[AC:WebComic]]
* Narbonic has one, where Dave has to find a Constant, so he can get returned. [[spoiler: Getting slapped/punched by a girl works!]]

* In ''DarwinsSoldiers:Pavlov's Checkmate'', the main team is trapped in 1990, and needs to send a message to a teammate still in 2010. They do this by noticing a file cabinet that they recall seeing in 2010, and slipping a note inside it.

* The American Flag in ''{{The Ultimates}}''. The newly thawed out Captain America is despondent over how different things are. Technology has advanced massively, his high school friends, fiance and army buddies are in their 80s and modern morality is completely different than the 1940s. That is until Nick Fury points out the American flag over a cemetery and comments that one thing hasn't changed.
** Except those two extra stars from 1959...

* In ''{{Inception}}'', the folks who enter dreams carry a "totem", a small personal item that they alone know the exact size and weight of, to help them remember if they are in reality or dream state if need be. For instance, lead protagonist Dom carries a top that will spin endlessly in a dream, but topple in reality [[spoiler: or possibly "reality".]]

** And when Jack [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming finally finds his homeland.]]

->"It's called a constant. Desmond, you have no constant. When you go to the future, nothing there is familiar. So if you want to stop this, then you need to find something there...something that you really, really care about...that also exists back here, in 1996."\\

* Across both wildly divergent timelines in the ''CommandAndConquer'' series, ''[[CommandAndConquerTiberium Tiberium]]'' and ''[[CommandAndConquerRedAlert RedAlert]]'', there is a corporation called Futuretech.

* Across both wildly divergent timelines in the ''CommandAndConquer'' series, ''[[CommandAndConquerTiberium Tiberium]]'' and ''RedAlert'', there is a corporation called Futuretech.

* TheLegendOfZelda games''OcarinaOfTime'' and ''OracleOfAges'' play with this trope a lot. It's possible the Deku tree is an example across the games, if the one in Wind Waker is the same one in Ocarina.

'''Examples:'''

[[quoteright:242:[[{{Inception}} http://www.crystalinks.com/inception_totem.jpg]]]]

When you TimeTravel, or you spend some time as a HumanPopsicle, or even just leave a place for a long time, things tend to change a lot. But even when almost everything has changed, there's some character or thing that exists in both time periods, not because they time travelled too, but because they [[TheSlowPath remained there the whole time]]. They are The Constant, and they connect two different-looking settings together and prove they're the same place.

Frequently the work will go out of its way to make a point of The Constant, and in our examples we focus on these intentional, obvious Constants. If the time-travelling character didn't realize they were in the same place until discovering The Constant, it might be a PlanetOfTheApesEnding.

If the time travelled is very long, the Constant will typically be a structure or an immortal rather than an ordinary person. If it is a person, it's usually the IdenticalGrandson or a variation thereof (such as MyGrandsonMyself).

** The same idea occurs with all the other series of StarTrek as well, with a character from a preceding series showing up in the first episode of the new series (Picard in ''DeepSpaceNine'', Quark in ''[[StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', Spock (and a reference to an Admiral Archer) in [[Film/StarTrek the reboot]]. ''{{Enterprise}}'' due to taking place earliest in the continuity used Zefram Cochrane from ''[[StarTrekFirstContact Star Trek: First Contact]]'').