History Main / TheConstant

* ''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.)

* 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 his son, aged considerably in the 80 or so years since the protagonist's stasis began.

* In ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia: The Silver Chair'' the heroes are directed by Aslan to go to the Ruined City of the Giants and look for [[PlotCoupon a sign]] that would tell them where to go. Not seeing anything, they are trapped in a snowstorm and forced to hide in a series of trenches. They [[ThatsNoMoon realize their mistake later]] when [[AboveTheRuins returning to the site]], they see the trenches were actually letters on a giant inscription:

** Most commentators agree that the final section of the book pretty much comes out and says that he's the Wandering Jew.
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the {{Discworld}} book ''Discworld/NightWatch''. Sam Vimes ends up in the past after a MagicalAccident, and has to keep things on-track while a criminal who went with him is messing everything up. Right when he's most despairing of ever getting back to where he belongs, [[spoiler: a History Monk brings him his silver cigar case, a gift from the wife he doesn't have yet and a reminder that his 'future' is real and has already happened.]]

* From ''InTheKeepOfTime'', Smailholm Tower. In an unusual variation, it is ''also'' the "time machine", as it were. The interesting implication of this is that the key can only take time travelers to a time period where the tower exists, not before its construction or after it collapses.

* In TheRedemptionOfAlthalus, when the title character first goes to the House At the End of the World, he passes a particular dead tree, when he leaves the House, 2500 years later, the same dead tree is still there, The Goddess Dweia says the gods keep the tree around as a landmark.

** In the two-part ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' episode "Time's Arrow", the long-lived Guinan is the link between times (along with Data's severed head).

* Happens from time to time in ''Series/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.]]
** Captain Jack Harkness has also become ''the'' constant for the universe. [[CompleteImmortality He can never die. He can never stop existing.]] [[spoiler: And now, [[Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay Rex Matheson]] seems to have joined him]].

* ''{{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 [[TearJerker tear up]].
** Applied Cryogenics 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, and that we see the world reduced to medieval levels twice during that time.

* Demona in ''{{Gargoyles}}''.

*** That was probably [[spoiler:Nibbler's]] doing.

-->-- '''Daniel Faraday''', ''{{Lost}}''

* 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 [[TheVerse 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]]''.
** In the two-part ''NextGeneration'' episode "Time's Arrow", the long-lived Guinan is the link between times (along with Data's severed head).
** The ''Next Generation'' two-parter 'Unification', created for an anniversary and features Spock, who is used to link the past and the present.

* In ''DarkCloud 2'', there is almost always an overly obvious Constant: That baby [[{{Pokemon}} Lapras]]-looking thing you saved helped to form the labs! That girl was the sage all along! etc.

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

** Also the Ziggurat of Mesopotamia.

[[AC:OlderThanSteam]]
* After sleeping for 20 years, RipVanWinkle is dismissed as just a loony old man until he is recognized by his daughter, now grown with a family of her own.

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* In the movie ''[[Pokemon4Ever Pokémon 4Ever]]'', the young woman Sammy meets is an old woman 40 years later when he meets her after a time trip.

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

** Also the Ziggeraet of Mesopotamia.

* 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. Growers of EpilepticTrees may find some fertilizer in the observation that [[spoiler:he never does get to see it topple before being interrupted]].

* 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.

* In FineStructure, Anne Poole is the Constant for over 20,000 years.

* The Pyramids of Giza. They are 4600 Hundered years old. They have been around since the dawn of civilisation and are still here.

* The Sun. The next time you sit down on the grass, and enjoy the warmth of the sun, remember, that your great-grandparents did this as well. And their great grandparents. And theirs. All the way back to those earliest, simplest forms of life, for whom that standard and none-too-remarkable star was their only source of warmth and energy. It existed 200,000 years before our planet coalesced in it's orbit. When we think of something as old, we call it 'as old as the hills'. The Sun watched the hills form. It was responsible for the formation of the hills.

->"It's called a [[TropeNamer 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."\\
-- '''Daniel Faraday''', ''{{Lost}}''

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the {{Discworld}} book ''Night Watch''. Sam Vimes ends up in the past after a MagicalAccident, and has to keep things on-track while a criminal who went with him is messing everything up. Right when he's most despairing of ever getting back to where he belongs, [[spoiler: a History Monk brings him his silver cigar case, a gift from the wife he doesn't have yet and a reminder that his 'future' is real and has already happened.]]

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