Basic Trope: A character fights against a version of themselves from the future or past.
- Straight: Bob takes the fight directly to Emperor Evulz, who reveals himself as a version of Bob from the future.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob's battle against Emperor Evulz ends with the reveal that Evulz is a version of him from a Bad Future. This sends a ripple across The Multiverse and kickstarts a Civil War between Bobs from various points in time and space.
- Downplayed: Bob's battle against Evulz takes a strange turn when Evulz is revealed to be an Alternate Self to Bob from another reality.
- Justified: Bob's entire quest is a Stable Time Loop. Evulz is defeated and Bob assumes the throne. Things don't go to plan and he time-travels to the past; disguising himself as Evulz to de-rail the timeline only to be defeated by his past self, who assumes the throne. Things don't go to plan and...
- Subverted:
- During Bob's fight with Evulz, the conqueror outs himself as a version of Bob from a Bad Future in an effort to de-moralize Bob. Bob's friends reveal the entire story was just a fabrication meant to get under Bob's skin...
- All of the evidence points to Emperor Evulz being a version of Bob from the future. He's actually Bob's present brother, who underwent a Face–Heel Turn and replaced the true Evulz, hence why he and Bob share mannerisms...
- Double Subverted:
- ...Until even more evidence proves the story really was true. Bob's friends were just trying their hardest to spare Bob from the trauma.
- ...except Bob's "brother" is actually Bob himself; who travelled to the past and took his own brother's place in the hopes of de-railing the timeline and seizing power for himself.
- Parodied:
- Evulz is revealed to be Bob's future self. Bob in-turn starts deliberately going off the rails to prevent Evulz's rise to power. This causes everyone else to assume Bob's lost it...which is how Evulz came to be.
- After defeating Emperor Evulz, he finds out the conqueror was a version of him from the future. Then his mom comes out as a refugee from the past, his brother and sister are elder gods, his friends are from other realities and his pet parrot is a robot.
- After Evulz reveals himself to be a future Bob, every other major character (including the Team Pet) is revealed to be a Bob from various points in the same timeline; each having assumed different personas and forms.
- Averted: Emperor Evulz is a separate person from Bob with no relation to him in any way.
- Enforced:
- Evulz was originally going to be Bob's father who was placed under Mind Control. However, his actor left the project; forcing the writers to improvise a new backstory.
- The Series Finale for Bob's show was a Sequel Hook for a show involving The Multiverse - Evulz being a future Bob felt like a twist that would ease viewers over to the idea.
- Lampshaded: "Evulz is somehow able to match Bob blow-for-blow. It's like he's Bob if he were evil or something!"
- Exploited:
- Bob enters combat against Emperor Evulz, who his finds out was a version of himself from a Bad Future. Evulz was The Dragon to a higher master, who set the duo into a Stable Time Loop to distract the heroes from his own attempts to Take Over the World.
- Emperor Evulz is Bob from a Bad Future. To save the timeline, he went to the past and adopted an evil persona; hoping that if Bob and his friends manage to take him down, they'd be able to save the world and prevent the dark future from ever occurring.
- Defied: Bob and Evulz manage to come to an agreement that stops the latter's reign of terror and ensures the kingdom is saved, that way they don't have to fight. Both hero and villain then proceed to civilly discuss the temporal elephant in the room.
- Discussed:
- "Bob, Evulz knows more of your personal sword-style than I care to admit. He can't be your father and none of you ever took on students. This is merely speculation, but maybe he's..."
- "Don't you get it, Bob!? Of course I can perfectly counter your personally-developed Final Troper Slash! After all...I created that technique myself."
- Conversed: "So Emperor Evulz was Bob from the future the whole time. Huh. I figured it'd be his dad or something."
- Implied: Bob and his friends manage to topple Emperor Evulz and save the kingdom. The day before his scheduled execution, Evulz's Last Request is a plate of his favorite food - which just so happens to be Bob's highly-specific Trademark Favorite Food...
