History Main / TimeTravelTropes

* ToTheFutureAndBeyond: Somebody can travel to the future, but can't go any further into the future.

* YoungFutureFamousPeople: Famous celebrities and/or historical figures shown during their younger years.

* ThisIsGoingToBeHuge: Someone in the past thinks that something will be very popular. They're wrong.

* ThisIsGoingToBeHuge: Someone in the past thinks that something will be very popular. They're wrong.

* ThisIsGoingToBeHuge: Someone in the past thinks something will be very popular. They're wrong.

* YoungFutureFamousPeople: Famous celebrities and/or historical figures depicted in their youth.

* GrandfatherParadox: Altering the past in a way that would logically prevent your time travel from happening in the first place. Named for the example of using time travel to erase oneself from existence by killing one's grandfather before they started a family.[[note]]After all, how could you have killed your grandfather if you never existed?[[/note]]

-> '''[[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Bruce Banner]]:''' Changing the past doesn't change the future. [...]\\
'''[[ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} Clint Barton]]:''' Well, that's what I heard.\\

'''[[ComicBook/WarMachine Rhodey]]:''' ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'', ''Film/TimeCop'', ''Series/TimeAfterTime''...\\
'''[[ComicBook/AntMan Scott Lang]]:''' ''Series/QuantumLeap''...\\

Of all the concepts in SpeculativeFiction, TimeTravel is probably the one that, ''[[{{Pun}} over time]],'' has provided us with the most possibilities for storytelling, and therefore the one that has been (''clocked'' as having been) exploited the most. Whether you're casting a critical eye on the past, satirizing the present through a warped future, or just looking for an excuse to have dinosaurs rampaging through New York, time travel is the way to go. Or, possibly, the way to have been going. It's so hard to tell these days. Or those days. Or whatever. Or ''whenever''. We tend to get [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble grammatically confused]] when talking on this subject.

See also AlternateHistoryTropes and ThisIndexIsAnachronistic.

Of all the concepts in SpeculativeFiction, TimeTravel is probably the one that, ''over time,'' has provided us with the most possibilities for storytelling, and therefore the one that has been (''clocked'' as having been) exploited the most. Whether you're casting a critical eye on the past, satirizing the present through a warped future, or just looking for an excuse to have dinosaurs rampaging through New York, time travel is the way to go. Or, possibly, the way to have been going. It's so hard to tell these days. Or those days. Or whatever. Or ''whenever''. We tend to get [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble grammatically confused]] when talking on this subject.

** AnachronismStew: A story taking place in a specific time period features technology, cultural references, etc. that are either out-of-date or don't exist yet. This could be the result of time-travelers introducing something from another era.

** GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: An alternate history in which the Nazis won is ''very easy'' to accidentally create.
*** HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: Going back in time to kill Hitler won't ever end well.

** YouWillBeBeethoven: Someone travels into the past and accidentally kills someone important or finds out the important person never existed, so they have to "be" that person.

** NecessaryFail: Going back in time to prevent something bad from happening results in something worse happening.

** TheFutureIsShocking: Someone from the past ends up in the present, and while they don't find it to be a Bad Present, they do find it shocking.

** InSpiteOfANail: In spite of that one change, everything's the same as it was in the original timeline.

** MyOwnGrampa: Through time travel and incest, a person becomes their own ancestor.

** GroundhogPeggySue: A character is forced to live some past event over and over.
** TimeLoopFatigue: A character is exhausted physically or emotionally by a time loop.

** CryoPrison: Freezing someone as punishment.

** NoOntologicalInertia: The idea that if the creator is destroyed, the creation will disappear and/or also be destroyed.

** MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: Using time travel to prevent good things from happening and to cause more bad things to happen in the past.
** SetWrongWhatWasOnceMadeRight: Someone goes back in time to undo a bad thing in the past, and (due to it creating a BadFuture, TemporalParadox, or something else terrible) has to go back and undo that change.

** TimeFreezeTrollingSpree: Playing pranks on other people while they're frozen in time.

** YearOutsideHourInside: A ''short'' time in another world is a ''long'' time in this world.

-> '''Bruce Banner:''' Changing the past doesn't change the future. [...]\\
'''Clint Barton:''' Well, that's what I heard.\\

'''Rhodey:''' ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'', ''Film/TimeCop'', ''Series/TimeAfterTime''...\\
'''Scott Lang:''' ''Series/QuantumLeap''...\\

'''Rhodey:''' ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'', ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure''. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel.

* NoOntologicalInertia: The idea that if the creator is destroyed, the creation will disappear and/or also be destroyed.

* PortalToThePast: A portal that alows time-travel into the past.

* YeGoodeOldeDays: A work that makes the past seem better.

%%* BackToTheEarlyInstallment: Characters time-travel to a previous point in their own story, often a previous episode of a series. (rogue launched trope)

* BackToTheEarlyInstallment: Characters time-travel to a previous point in their own story, often a previous episode of a series.

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