History Main / RefugeeFromTime

* In the 21st-century reimagining of the ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Peter "Star-Lord" Quill is very much tied to TheEighties, having been taken as a child at the time and not coming back to Earth for decades. (He's a DiscoDan for ''70s'' music as well due to having a tape as one of his few mementos.) Yet he seldom shows his age as the years tick on. Even in ''VideoGame/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2021'', for instance, he looks relatively youthful despite pushing 50 if it takes place in the year of release. Appropriately enough, even in his original incarnation, Peter was tied to a specific birthdate: February 4, 1962, for [[WhenThePlanetsAlign a different reason]].

** As real time passes, it becomes more and more of a stretch that [[DiscoDan Disco Stu]] was old enough to appreciate Disco music during its heyday.

** Montgomery Burns has Victorian-era memories that must make him absurdly old at this point. Burns' age is yet another case of {{Flanderization}} on the part of the TropeNamer. In the 1990 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E2SimpsonAndDelilah Simpson and Delilah]]", Burns tells Homer that he's 81 years old, which would place his birth date in 1908 at the earliest. Burns's age was then exaggerated in later seasons; by the mid-'90s he was usually stated to be 104 years old. While this is of course an age that most people never reach, it's still not downright absurdly old. At that point in the series, flashbacks to Burns childhood were usually implied to take place in the late 1800s, which made sense since the episodes aired in the 1990s. The thing is though, that even in the episodes airing now in the 2020s, Burns ''still'' seems to be a child of the late 1800s. Since he also appears to be old enough to have vivid memories of the time, this would probably make him the oldest person in the world today.

* As time went on, it became more and more of a stretch to believe that a youthful-looking woman like ComicBook/BlackWidow (introduced in 1964) could be a veteran of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. Writers eventually got around the issue by retconning her into possessing slowed aging.

* It has become an established part of [[Comicbook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck Scrooge McDuck]]'s past that the character took part in the Klondike and Yukon Gold Rush -- between 1896 and 1899, currently more than a hundred years ago. Don Rosa fixed this problem, at least in his own comics, by establishing that all his [=McDuck=] comics take place during the late 1940's and early 50's. Thus Scrooge could very well have taken part in the gold rushes as a young man. Some other [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse McDuck]] authors follow this, but others ignore it and set their stories in the present. The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' to mention the gold rush lampshades this when Huey is curious how old that would make Scrooge, and {{handwave}}s it as the result of magic (Scrooge [[YearOutsideHourInside spent years in a dimension where he didn't age]], while Goldie drank from the FountainOfYouth).

This causes problems of logic for when the Refugee From Time ends up inside a [[ComicBookTime Sliding Timescale]]. By all FridgeLogic the person should be older or even dead, they may at one point follow what should be the time and then flip back to pick up some attributes from another time. At some point the character may have started aging naturally before they realised that it wasn't going to hold. (For example, the backstory of [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] from Marvel Comics involves being in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. Each new iteration shifts his age down, with AppliedPhlebotinum providing excuses for him to be magically or scientifically rejuvenated.)

This causes problems of logic for when the Refugee From Time ends up inside a [[ComicBookTime Sliding Timescale]]. By all FridgeLogic the person should be older or even dead, they may at one point follow what should be the time and then flip back to pick up some attributes from another time. At some point the character may have started aging naturally before they realised that it wasn't going to hold. (For example, the backstory of Magneto from Marvel Comics involves being in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. Each new iteration shifts his age down, with AppliedPhlebotinum providing excuses for him to be magically or scientifically rejuvenated.)

This trope is invoked every time you see an adult in their forties, fifties, or sixties complain about the music the kids are listening to these days. The original fans of RockAndRoll, even assuming they were all fifteen back when rock began, would be in their seventies as of TheNewTens and anyone who grew up listening to punk rock in the [[The70s late 70s]] would think today's music tame by comparison.

This trope is invoked every time you see an adult in their forties, fifties, or sixties complain about the music the kids are listening to these days. The original fans of rock and roll, even assuming they were all fifteen back when rock began, would be in their seventies as of TheNewTens and anyone who grew up listening to punk rock in the late 70s would think today's music tame by comparison.

*** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E13TheColorYellow The Color Yellow]]", he revealed that his father was a Confederate slaveowner. Possible, since there have been cases of [[OldManMarryingAChild elderly Southern men who took]] ''[[DirtyOldMan very]]'' [[DirtyOldMan young brides]].[[note]]For reference, the latest-known child of a Civil War soldier, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Triplett Irene Triplett]], lived from 1930 to 2020[[/note]].

* The ''[[Fanfic/CulDeSac Ed, Edd N Eddy Purgatory Theory]]'' has each of the kids (Barring the Kankers) come from a different point in the Earth's timeline:

* It has become an established part of [[Comicbook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck Scrooge McDuck]]'s past that the character took part in the Klondike and Yukon Gold Rush -- currently more than a hundred years ago. Don Rosa fixed this problem, at least in his own comics, by establishing that all his [=McDuck=] comics take place during the late 1940's and early 50's. Thus Scrooge could very well have taken part in the gold rushes as a young man. Some other [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse McDuck]] authors follow this, but others ignore it and set their stories in the present. The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' to mention the gold rush lampshades this when Huey is curious how old that would make Scrooge, and {{handwave}}s it as the result of magic (Scrooge [[YearOutsideHourInside spent years in a dimension where he didn't age]], while Goldie drank from the FountainOfYouth).

** Montgomery Burns has Victorian-era memories that must make him absurdly old at this point. Burns' age is yet another case of {{Flanderization}} on the part of the TropeNamer. In the 1990 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E2SimpsonAndDelilah Simpson and Delilah]]", Burns tells Homer that he's 81 years old, which would place his birth date in 1908 at the earliest. Burns's age was then exaggerated in later seasons; by the mid-'90s he was usually stated to be 104 years old. While this is of course an age that most people never reach, it's still not downright absurdly old. At that point in the series, flashbacks to Burns childhood were usually implied to take place in the late 1800s, which made sense since the episodes aired in the 1990s. The thing is though, that even in the episodes airing now in the 2010s, Burns ''still'' seems to be a child of the late 1800s. Since he also appears to be old enough to have vivid memories of the time, this would probably make him the oldest person in the world today.

** ''History of the Marvel Universe'' (2019) introduces to canon Creator/MarkWaid's concept of the Siancong War, a decades-long series of conflicts in Southeast Asia that [[FloatingTimeline was always taking place about 15 years ago]] and can be substituted for any real life war in that region, and states that any references to the Vietnam War should be taken as references to this fictional conflict instead. Accordingly, Frank's background was updated within that issue to the Siancong War, as well ComicBook/IronMan's origins, which had until then been previously updated to UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar and later UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror; ComicBook/WarMachine's backstory, who was also originally depicted as a 'Nam vet and is tied to Iron Man's origin; and even ComicBook/MisterFantastic and ComicBook/TheThing, who were UsefulNotes/WorldWarII vets [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness for the first couple of decades]] of the Franchise/FantasticFour's publication history until that war slipped too far into the past for it to make sense.

* On ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Jimbo and Ned are supposed to be Vietnam War vets. This was a bit iffy when the show started in 1997, but still possible - most Vietnam vets served in the mid-60s and the last US combat troops left in early 1973. But nowadays the pair should be in the seventies while they still look about 50.

** Ed and Sarah were the children of a [[DisappearedDad dead G.I.]] and a working mother from the TheForties who died in a car accident.

** Kevin was a JerkJock from the TheNineties who was [[OffingTheOffspring killed]] by his [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] when he attempted to [[CallingTheOldManOut stand up to him.]]

** Rolf was an farm boy from a faraway land who died during the TheEdwardianEra after being trampled by one of the farm animals.

** Jonny died during the TheRoaringTwenties of tuberculosis.

* In Comicbook/XMen, ComicBook/{{Magneto}}'s backstory is so entrenched in Auschwitz by this point that writers struggle with keeping him as a Holocaust survivor and still keeping him and his contemporary Charles Xavier up to date. There have been attempts to retcon this, but they always SnapBack in the end. The solution seems to be giving Xavier and Magneto [[AppliedPhlebotinum anti-aging treatments]] periodically.

* ComicBook/BuckDanny and his usual wingmen may be the biggest offenders in FrancoBelgian comics, not having aged a day since they joined to fight the Japanese in [=WW2=] and are still flying today (Buck himself never gets promoted past colonel, as this would prevent him from flying a jet).

* ComicStrip/{{Curtis}}'s father still hates all the "rap stuff" the title character likes, despite by current standards he should have grown up on hip hop.

* On ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Jimbo and Ned are supposed to be Vietnam War vets. This was a bit iffy when the show started in 1997, but possible - most Vietnam vets served in the mid 60sand the last US combat troops left in early 1973. But nowadays the pair should be in the seventies while they still look about 50.

*** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E13TheColorYellow The Color Yellow]]", he revealed that his father was a Confederate slaveowner. Possible, since there have been cases of [[OldManMarryingAChild elderly Southern men who took]] ''[[DirtyOldMan very]]'' [[DirtyOldMan young brides]].[[note]]For reference, the latest-known child of a Civil War soldier, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Triplett Irene Triplett]], lived from 1930-2020]].

This causes problems of logic for when the Refugee From Time ends up inside a [[ComicBookTime Sliding Timescale]]. By all FridgeLogic the person should be older or even dead, they may at one point follow what should be the time and then flip back to pick up some attributes from another time. At some point the character may have started aging naturally before they realised that it wasn't going to hold. For example, Magneto's backstory involves being in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. Each new iteration shifts his age down, with AppliedPhlebotinum providing excuses for him to be magically or scientifically rejuvenated.

*** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E13TheColorYellow The Color Yellow]]", he revealed that his father was a Confederate slaveowner. Possible, since there have been cases of [[OldManMarryingAChild elderly Southern men who took]] ''[[DirtyOldMan very]]'' [[DirtyOldMan young brides]].

** You have Grampa Abe Simpson, who will always be a World War II vet, and Seymour Skinner, who will always be a Vietnam vet. By now, Grampa should have died of old age and Skinner should be as old as Grampa was at the start of the show.

** A flashback in "Die, Hippie, Die" shows Sharon and Randy as young adults during Woodstock (1969). Even at the time (2005) this made little sense, as it would have made them at least in their mid-50s. With the show continuing into 2022, they should be in their 70s by now.

* Even though Creator/AlexTrebek shaved off his iconic mustache in 2001 (briefly growing it back in Fall 2014), ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s "Celebrity ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''" sketches still depicted him with the mustache.

* On ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Jimbo and Ned are supposed to be Vietnam War vets. This was already a bit iffy when the show started, but nowadays the pair should be in the sixties while they still look about 50.
** A flashback in "Die, Hippie, Die" shows Sharon and Randy as young adults during Woodstock. Even at the time (2005) this made little sense, as it would have made them at least in their mid-50s. With the show continuing into 2022, they should be in their 70s by now.