History Main / TimeyWimeyball

* One puzzle in ''EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'' involves a time-travel maze where, at one point, you encounter your future self (and, later on, your past self, in exactly the same situation only controlling the other Guybrush). Taking an incorrect course of action (usually saying something wrong as the future self) creates a "paradox" that throws you back to the start of the maze. The puzzle goes a long way towards demonstrating the problems with a StableTimeLoop.

* ''VideoGames/DarkSouls'': The Player Character is told from the beginning that time in Lordran is inconsistent; everyone has their own "world" (i.e. timeline) wherein their own pasts and futures proceed in the standard way, but each of these worlds is technically separate from every other. Occasionally, two or more worlds can overlap temporarily and their inhabitants interact. The catalysts vary - people can leave messages for one another, leave "Summoning Signs" that other travelers may use to request aid. Alternatively, certain "Orb" items can be used to invade other worlds to kill the hosts.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' has a case of this once you get into the multiple time-streams. One specific example is that a solution to being trapped in an insane building by a computer trying to kill you is to scream at Hope, who is in the origin time-line in the distant future and will see the video and not turn on the insane computer.

The standard HandWave (if one is given) is that time is very complicated and the particulars of the situation affect how the rules apply in ways that a layperson wouldn't understand. Which is one of the ''many'' reasons why some people really, ''really '''HATE''''' time travel.

Despite the similar images the name might conjure, this is unrelated to SwirlyEnergyThingy (although a SwirlyEnergyThingy might very well have Timey Wimey effects). Likewise, a ContinuitySnarl is not necessarily related, though the presence of TimeTravel induced {{retcon}}s can certainly make a character's past ''seem'' like a tangled up ball of yarn.

*** A quote from Jonathan Frakes re: ''Yesterday's Enterprise'': "To this day I do not understand ''Yesterday's Enterprise''. I do not know what the fuck happened in that episode. I'm still trying to understand it ... but I liked the look."

* Time travel in ''Film/MenInBlack 3'' varies between TemporalParadox (the plot starts off with history being altered so Kay died in the 60s), YouAlreadyChangedThePast ([[spoiler:Jay's father dying]]), and MentalTimeTravel ([[spoiler:how Jay defeats the BigBad]]) depending on the needs of the plot.

* Thinking about the time travel logic in Film/MenInBlack 3 will only give you a headache, so don't even try.

** River Song. Her encounters with the Doctor are not synchronized at all. The journal checking seen in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E8SilenceInTheLibrary Silence in the Library]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]," as well as the "spotter's guide" from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels The Time of Angels]]" seem to indicate that she meets the Doctor in a random order, but when River's [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble past/future]] with the Doctor is brought up in Series 6, it's implied that they're traveling in practically reverse order - the [[spoiler: kiss]] at the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon Day of the Moon]]" is implied to be River's last ''because'' it is the Doctor's first. Despite the fact they clearly ''aren't'' meeting in reverse order since the Doctor meets her [[spoiler: months after she was born]] four times after he 'first' meets her. And she doesn't recognize Rory in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang The Big Bang]]" despite seeming to know him already in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]," which is ''earlier'' in her timeline (though that was most likely due to [[spoiler:him having been [[RetGone erased from history]]]] at that point. Their meetings are mostly random, and any given time the two meet up may be synchronized, but -- overall -- they're moving in opposite directions.

** The whole of ''The Big Bang'' is built on this trope [[spoiler:-- The Doctor saving the day and escaping from the Pandorica is built on an ontological paradox -- he shows up already escaped to enlist Auton!Rory in effecting his escape.]] The Doctor even explains that this would normally cause drastic side effects for the universe, but luckily [[spoiler:the universe had already been destroyed.]]
** ''A Christmas Carol'' also features this heavily. [[spoiler: It starts with the Doctor showing a video Kazran made as a boy to the older him - and traveling back in time to when he made it, leaving Kazran watching a video of the Doctor interfering in his past as his own memories change to reflect that this had happened. It ends with the Doctor showing the [[FutureMeScaresMe younger Kazran the man he turns into]], leading to the older one having a change of heart partly brought on by realizing he's turned into his father, and partly by him being retroactively altered by the experience of being horrified at seeing his older self as a boy.]] ''Ow.'' It's implied this method is far from perfect, as [[spoiler: Kazran's own mind-reading controls no longer recognizes him, despite the fact that it should logically have been programmed for the Kazran that existed in the current timeline.]] I think it's that the Doctor [[spoiler: changed the boy as well as the man. Hypothetically, Boy Kazran went through all the stuff that Scrooge Kazran did, but had the additional factor of seeing Scrooge Karzan and never wanted to become like he was.]] Presto Change-O and immediate echoes into the future... [[spoiler:his brain waves change - creating a new Karzan who both experienced Abigail ''and'' Scrooge Kazran and ''also'' maybe even at one point of the new history we didn't see ''rejected his father'' (so no actual mind control for him was made .]] Who knows? It is a [[TimeyWimeyBall timey-wimey ball]] after all
** River Song. Her encounters with the Doctor are not synchronized at all. The journal checking seen in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E8SilenceInTheLibrary Silence in the Library]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]," as well as the "spotter's guide" from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels The Time of Angels]]" seem to indicate that she meets the Doctor in a random order, but when River's [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble past/future]] with the Doctor is brought up in Series 6, it's implied that they're traveling in practically reverse order - the [[spoiler: kiss]] at the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon Day of the Moon]]" is implied to be River's last ''because'' it is the Doctor's first. Despite the fact they clearly ''aren't'' meeting in reverse order since the Doctor meets her [[spoiler: months after she was born]] four times after he 'first' meets her. And she doesn't recognize Rory in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang The Big Bang]]" despite seeming to know him already in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]," which is ''earlier'' in her timeline. Their meetings are mostly random, and any given time the two meet up may be synchronized, but -- overall -- they're moving in opposite directions. She probably did recognize Rory in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang The Big Bang]]"

*** Amy couldn't remember Rory in The Pandorica Opens because he was part of her history when he was wiped in time. The same could be said for River in those episodes, because Rory was part of River's history she also forgot about Rory until the universe rebooted. She genuinely didn't recognise him and just thought he was a centurion.

** Father's Day summed it up pretty well. Pete Tyler being alive created a paradox, and anything else would make it worse. So yeah, interacting with one's past self makes sparks, and a paradox fills the air with gas fumes(sort of. Not really at all, but if that helps just think of it like that).
** [[SarcasmMode And just because the DW section for this trope needs to be larger,]] used extensively in the episode "The Girl Who Waited". The TARDIS crew happens upon the 'Two Streams' health centre. They take people who have contracted fatal illnesses, and place them in the 'fast' stream, symbolised by a red water-fall. They can live their whole life and age normally in only a day. Meanwhile, their loved ones are in the slow stream, symbolised by a green anchor, and can watch their lover/family/friend have a fruitful life. Unfortunately, it all goes wrong when [[spoiler: Amy gets trapped in the fast stream. Eventually Rory manages to break in to save her, but 39 years have passed, leaving his wife old and bitter. He can jump back in time to save younger Amy, but can only do so with older!Amy's help. Except she doesn't want to be re-written and stop existing. Eventually they decide to save both of them by breaking the laws of causality; at the last minute the Doctor reveals this is actually a paradox and leaves Old!Amy behind to die.]]
** Perhaps the earliest use of this in the series is "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E7TheSpaceMuseum The Space Museum]]." The First Doctor and his companions arrive at a planet with a space museum in it, but due to the TARDIS "jumping a time track", they arrive JustOneSecondOutOfSync, rendering them invisible and inaudible to anyone else. While there, they see themselves trapped in museum display cases. When their InvisibleMainCharacter status wears off, the cases go away, they're still inside the museum, and have to escape or otherwise find a way to avoid the fate they saw for themselves.

** The Doctor tried to mess with a fixed point in "The Waters of Mars." [[{{Tearjerker}} It doesn't end well.]] He explicitly states that there are fixed points in history which cannot be changed. Those points in history greatly effect the future and allow for time to follow a more or less consistent path. Anything he does to try and change history will simply cause the event to occur regardless. Even the Daleks are shown to respect this. The Doctor, feeling frisky, tries to alter one. Events remind him even a Time Lord has limits.

** In "The Fires of Pompeii", a companion asks why the Doctor will thwart aliens but not stop a particular historical catastrophe, and the Doctor replies that some points in time are fixed, while others are in flux. His being a Time Lord allows him to perceive which is which, and act accordingly; even against his nobler instincts.

* FinalFantasyXII-2 has a case of this once you get into the multiple time-streams. One specific example is that a solution to being trapped in an insane building by a computer trying to kill you is to scream at Hope, who is in the origin time-line in the distant future and will see the video and not turn on the insane computer.

* ''BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'' establishes that "[[SanDimasTime the clock is always running in San Dimas]]" -- that is, that however long Bill and Ted are in another time, that much time will have passed when they return to their "home time". This is held up for the first film and most of the second... [[spoiler:and then utterly discarded for the ending of ''Bogus Journey'', where they zap away for 18 months and return seconds after they left.]] Of course, the first film kludges it a bit as well -- when initially going back to their own time, they actually end up at the same point they left, and have to be told by Rufus that they need to dial 1 digit higher for the next day.
** Even more odd, Rufus never tells the two of them his name. They hear it from their future selves, who presumably heard it from ''their'' future selves who...
* ''TheButterflyEffect'' has the events of roughly half of Evan's blackouts caused by his older self [[MentalTimeTravel going back to them]], while the other half were normal initially, but could be changed by his older self. One blackout even has examples of both. Also, it is established early on that Evan is the only who has any memory of the old timelines, but at one point another character notices a change in the timeline for no apparent reason.

*** A fan [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Deja_Vu_Timeline.GIF theory]] suggest that the timeline would have to have run 4 times to get the desired results seen in the film.
* In ''Femme Fatale''... y'know what, screw it. You watch it and tell me what the hell that movie was about. [[spoiler:Was it TimeTravel? OrWasItADream?]]
* ''{{Frequency}}'' is one big TimeyWimeyBall. You've got the son talking to the dad on the same ham radio, and even the whole "changes happen in sync with each other deal" mentioned in the ''KamenRiderDenO'' note above.
** Not to mention that the first time John changes history and saves his father, he suddenly has memories of both timelines, which is promptly dropped for the rest of the film as from then on he only has memories of how things originally happened.
** In ''Johnny and the Bomb'' Pratchett explains that most time travellers forget the original timeline when they return to the new one because of the human tendency to accept what's around them as normal; but if you really try (or are reminded of it by some useful clue) you can remember how things used to be.
* ''The Lake House'' was a horrible mixture of TimeTravel ideologies. In some ways the timeline is constant - the guy she kissed at the party turns out to be the guy she's communicating with in the past. Yet in other ways the timeline is variable - she tells him how she misses the trees, so he plants one at the place she's going to live at - which she magically doesn't notice having grown until after she sent him that letter. And then there's the grandfather paradox involving the (lack of a) car accident at the end/beginning of the film, causing her to go/not go to the lake house and end up communicating/not communicating with the guy in the first place.
** And let's not forget the dog in the past timeline who responded to the name given to it in the future timeline.
* The movie ''LostInSpace'' contains a plot where the father walks into the future by an energy field just to find his son creating that energy field as a result to build a machine to travel into the past, because the entire family was wiped out as a result of the father disappearing by walking into the future...
** Then there's the future Smith killing his past self without a second thought or consequences.

* The ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' movie ''A Sitch in Time'' begins with Kim and Ron splitting up, [[{{Chickification}} causing Kim to become worthless in fighting evil]] thus the {{Supervillain}}s got hold of the Time Monkey, that [[TheDragon Shego]] eventually stole and created a BadFuture with her as the ruler. But in the end, it's revealed that Shego was the one that caused Kim and Ron to split up in the first place. So basically, Shego only got the Time Monkey because Kim and Ron split up, but Kim and Ron split up because Shego used the Time Monkey...

* [[http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/81893/february-07-2007/tek-jansen---from-the-future This]] episode of Tek Jansen, a series of shorts originally created for StephenColbert's show, illustrates how bad (or ''[[SoBadItsGood awesome]]'') this trope can get.

The standard HandWave (if one is given) is that time is very complicated and the particulars of the situation affect how the rules apply in ways that a layperson wouldn't understand. Which is one of the ''many'' reasons why some people absolutely ''frickin' '''HATE''''' time travel...

** ''Film/StarTrek'' is even more disturbing: WordOfGod has it that instead of erasing the later series, it just split off a new timeline, so that the later series still happened in the original timeline (dubbed "the Prime" timeline in ''Fanon'') but have not in the new timeline. This gets weird as there are many instances of characters from the Prime timeline traveling back to before the split, which means that if a character from the alternate timeline were to travel back to say, [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The orbital Atomic Accident]], [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine The Bell Riots]], or [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact The first Warp Test]] they would find time travelers from the Prime timeline, which from their point of view doesn't exist. Quite a MindScrew...

** The enormous effect the resulting lack of religion would have on Bajor would have been good or Bajor. No Cardassian invasion, no holocaust. Alternate Bareil says his Bajor has no religion. Alt-Bajor is a high ranking member of the Empire.

*** I'm pretty sure the closed loop trick only works inside the black hole.
**** If only! The Gödel metric manages to have closed timelike loops in a universe that has ''no singularities'' and is even topologically ''simply connected''. No, I cannot visualize that either.

*** This one isn't all that hard as far as paradoxes go. During the Battle of Narendra III, the Enterprise-C made a HeroicSacrifice against the Romulans attacking the Klingon outpost. This selfless act by a Federation ship on behalf of the Klingon Empire eventually led to a peace treaty between the Klingons and the Federation. However, during the battle, a massive explosion caused a NegativeSpaceWedgie to form, sending the Enterprise-C to the present. But without the Enterprise-C's presence at the battle, the peace treaty would have never formed, so once the Enterprise-C arrives in the present, the present almost immediately becomes a BadFuture where the Federation and Klingon Empire have been at war for decades. The Enterprise-D helps repair the -C enough to send it back through so it can be destroyed as it should have. But Tasha Yar, who in the BadFuture survived when she died in the "normal" timeline, volunteers to go back with the -C after being told by Guinan that she would not live when things go back to normal. So the Enterprise-C goes back to the Battle of Narendra III and is destroyed, but the results of the battle are changed just enough that captives are taken by the Romulans, including Tasha. So all in all, a bit more difficult to follow, but not all that hard to understand.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' has different things happening to the hero as the past is changed. Read the timeline for the trilogy at [[http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Back_to_the_Future_timeline this page]] if you have any questions about how it works. There isn't a single concern here that isn't covered there one way or another.

* When time travel is introduced to ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' it is assumed that Trunks travel backward from his BadFuture and warning the heroes about the Androids means that they will be able to defeat them and change his own timeline. Eventually, he travels back again, and finds that things are not playing out as they did in his own history. This is further complicated by the appearance of Cell, who travelled back from a timeline in which Trunks disabled the Androids before being killed by Cell and having his time capsule stolen. Trunks eventually concludes that nothing that happens in one timeline has any bearing whatsoever on another (meaning that killing the fetal Cell in the "present" won't retroactively destroy the Cell they are fighting, and there is a third Cell waiting for him back in his own timeline, which won't be affected by the Androids being stopped in the "present"). So his solution is simply to [[spoiler:deal with the problem in the 'present' then return to his future having TookALevelInBadass that allows him to [[CurbstompBattle obliterate his Androids and Cell with little effort.]]]]