Fanfic / The Butterfly Effect 0

The Butterfly Effect 0, from what the title reads, is a prequel fanfic to the film, concerning the life of one Jason Treborn, who uses his time travel powers to make a fortune.

This fic has examples of the following tropes.

• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Averted, as it is not illegal to use information from the future to play the stock market. The Securities and Exchange Commission could not have realized how Jason made his fortune, and suspected Jason of insider trading, especially after he dumped a bunch of Enron stock just before the infamous Enron scandal.
• Foregone Conclusion: We know that Jason would end up in a mental hospital by 1989.
• Fridge Horror: Matt Treborn (Jason's grandfather) had come from an Alternate Timeline where the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in total nuclear war. It is implied that in that timeline, he was some sort of high official in Washington.
• Idiot Ball: Jason continues to use his powers to maximize his company's profits, even though he was already very wealthy, his company was not in danger of bankruptcy, and he knew by then there were dangerous side effects to his powers. And then he went back in time to tell his past self to dump Enron stock just before the scandal wiped out its value, which painted a huge target on his back for the SEC. This is justified as repeated use of time travel affects the traveler's behavior.
• Shout-Out:
  • The doctor who took care of Jason's grandfather Matt was Emmett Von Braun
    • Von Braun even mentions that decades ago, the institution was surrounded by farmland as far as the eye can see, and one of the farmers bred pine trees.
    • There are several shout outs to the film, including another iteration of the mailbox explosion scene.
  • The name of Jason's father, Chris Treborn, was the name of the main character in early versions of the script for The Butterfly Effect.
• Shown Their Work: The author made sure to include accurate historical references, including now-obscure brand names which were popular in the past.