Sonic: If we don't return in time, Elise will die on board Eggman's battleship.
Kung-Fu Jesus: What? If you don't return in time? What?! But... you can return any time you want, that's the thing, you can go back to whenever you want!
IlluminatusVespucci: People never seem to realize this when they have time machines.
Kung-Fu Jesus: What? If you don't return in time? What?! But... you can return any time you want, that's the thing, you can go back to whenever you want!
IlluminatusVespucci: People never seem to realize this when they have time machines.
— The Let's Play of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) by pokecapn, medibot, Kung-Fu Jesus, and IlluminatusVespucci
Prisoner Of Azkaban treats time travel like this urgent thing: "We've made it to the past! Now we've only got a few minutes to go back and stop the dementors!" No you don't, you have as much time as you need. It's fucking time travel. If you mess up, just go back and try again. Of course there's time to wait, you've got a goddamn time machine. Do it tomorrow, do it in ten years. It's the least suspenseful thing imaginable, yet they treat it as the nail-biting climax of the movie.
— Darach McGarrigle, Cracked.com editor, 8 Classic Movies That Got Away With Gaping Plot Holes
"And how ironic is that, that there's a time limit to go back in time?!"
— The Angry Video Game Nerd, reviewing Mario's Time Machine for the Super NES
"It's a time machine, Superman. It doesn't matter how long it takes to fix. Just as long as it gets fixed."
— Batman, JLA (1997)
CG: OK, LET ME JUST CHECK THE UNIVERSAL CLOCK WHICH KEEPS CONSISTENT TIME FOR ALL FRAMES OF REFERENCE AND ALL PLANES OF REALITY.
CG: IT'S HALF PAST YOU'RE A MORON.
— carcinoGeneticist, Homestuck
It is an abstraction weaving together the fortunes of otherwise perfectly disparate chronologies
— Doc Scratch explaining circumstantial simultaneity, Homestuck.
"Dammit, Doc, why did you have to tear up that letter? If only I had more time... Wait a minute... I got all the time I want; I got a time machine!''"
— Marty McFly, Back to the Future
"How is a deadline ever a problem if you had the ability to time travel? That's something I didn't notice last chapter. Just go back in time until the movie is made! I don't see how they'd stop you!"
— Again A Fanfic Critic reviewing BLaJ's Adventures on the Hindenburg
"And as we all know, things in the past are running linearly alongside things in the present because that's how time works."
— Phelous reviewing Aladdin and the Adventure of All Time
He was only wearing white shorts and was half-covered by the sheet of the bed in her room at Legion Headquarters. "You're really going back today?"
Kara Zor-El walked back into the bedchamber. Hairbrush still in one hand, she bent and hugged him. "I have to, Devian. I still live in the 20th Century. Got to get to work. I was on my way there when the Legion summoned me." She felt the firmness of his naked chest against her and was very glad she had become his lover. Her empty hand stroked the contours of his back. His arms were holding her as well, and she bit her lip to keep passion from overruling judgment.
She could stay with him for a year here, easily. Two years. Longer. But she had a life, otherwhen, and she had to get back to it.
Kara Zor-El walked back into the bedchamber. Hairbrush still in one hand, she bent and hugged him. "I have to, Devian. I still live in the 20th Century. Got to get to work. I was on my way there when the Legion summoned me." She felt the firmness of his naked chest against her and was very glad she had become his lover. Her empty hand stroked the contours of his back. His arms were holding her as well, and she bit her lip to keep passion from overruling judgment.
She could stay with him for a year here, easily. Two years. Longer. But she had a life, otherwhen, and she had to get back to it.
"[The kids'] baseball game is in an hour, but, uh...from what I understand, they're in the 1800s right now, so...I THINK THEY HAVE PLENTY OF FUCKING TIME!!!"
— The Angry Video Game Nerd, reviewing the Lighstpan Adventures game, Calamity: The Natural World
"He has the power of time travel, and he's late!"
— Duff Killigan, Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time
"Time Pilots! [Villain of the Week] just stole something from the past. You've got 28 minutes to get it back, or history will be changed forever!"
"I'm no time travel expert, but can't we just call Voyager again? The past isn't going anywhere."
Guinan: Well, as I said, time has no meaning here. So if you leave, you can go anywhere, any time.
Picard: All right, I know exactly where I want to go. The mountaintop on Veridian III, just before Soran destroyed the star.
Nostalgia Critic: (voiceover) WHAT?! Why there?! Why don't you go to where you first picked him up or when you decided to first go out there in the first place? Fuck, why don't you go back and save your brother's family while you're at it?! What's this shit about being put back in the moment you already know you lost in?! What are you, a MORON?!! Did everyone's brains just get beamed out of their heads?!
Picard: All right, I know exactly where I want to go. The mountaintop on Veridian III, just before Soran destroyed the star.
Nostalgia Critic: (voiceover) WHAT?! Why there?! Why don't you go to where you first picked him up or when you decided to first go out there in the first place? Fuck, why don't you go back and save your brother's family while you're at it?! What's this shit about being put back in the moment you already know you lost in?! What are you, a MORON?!! Did everyone's brains just get beamed out of their heads?!
— The Nostalgia Critic's review of Star Trek: Generations
Supergirl: "I have to return to Stanhope College in the 20th Century, as Linda Lee Danvers, or my secret identity might be suspected!"
(later...)
Superboy: "You can still make that appearance as Linda Danvers, by emerging from the time-barrier in 1965, moments after you last left that time period!"
(later...)
Superboy: "You can still make that appearance as Linda Danvers, by emerging from the time-barrier in 1965, moments after you last left that time period!"
