History Main / NonSequiturCausality

* Many issues of Marvel's ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' fall into this trap.

* ''{{Misfile}}'' has an example that starts out being completely impenetrable though the connection is eventually revealed: When main character Ash wakes up one morning having been [[GenderBender retroactively turned into a girl]]: not only is he now female, as far as most of the universe is concerned he always WAS, with resulting changes in his wardrobe, photo-albums, relationships... and, strangely enough, the car he'd stashed in his garage because he couldn't afford an engine for it suddenly has exactly the engine it needs. Eventually it's revealed that his estranged mother -- whom he'd lost touch with in original timeline but had already reconnected with as a girl -- had not only provided her with tons of clothes; she'd also bought her "daughter" a new engine for her racecar, perhaps to assuage the guilt she felt over abandoning her in childhood.

* For his review of ''TheRoom'' WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic travels to the future. After his returning he sees, that the wall behind him now have another colour. Nothing else changed, just an another wall. [[FurryFandom And he has a tail.]]

* Many of the timelines seen in ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Treehouse of Horror V" (e.g. donut rain as a result of killing dinosaurs). The story ends with everything normal, except for people having long, forked, prehensile tongues.
* In a WonderfulLife episode of ''TheFairlyOddParents'', it turns out that if Timmy had never been born, AJ would have hair, Elmer wouldn't have a boil and a non-braceface Chester would have Timmy's fairy godparents.

** Possibly something of a GeniusBonus, since Tim Burners-Lee, (who invented the World Wide Web[[hottip:*:''Not'' the internet, that's merely the result of computer networds growing large enough to cover the Earth. Burners-Lee himself credits the creation of the internet to Vint Cerf and Bob Khan who developed IP protocols.]] by way of being in charge of the team who developed HTML protocols) originally planned on calling his invention [[FunWithAcronyms The Infomation Mine]], before realising the acronym was "un peu egoiste".
* On ''FamilyGuy'', Peter went back in time to relive his teenaged years and as a result Lois ends up married to Quagmire and Peter is married to Molly Ringwald. Also Al Gore is the President, we have universal health care, no crime or poverty, non-polluting flying cars that run on vegetable oil, and Dick Cheney, Antonin Scalia, Karl Rove and Tucker Carlson are all dead. But worst of all, Chevy Chase is hosting ''TheTonightShow''. Peter manages to fix everything, but [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDad Roger the alien]] is now a member of the Griffin household.
* Inverted in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Late Philip J. Fry," Professor Farnsworth [[spoiler: assassinates Hitler in the early 1930's in one timeline and accidentally assassinates Eleanor Roosevelt in another]] but in both cases the year 3010 they return to appears to be exactly the same, except for being ten feet lower and five feet to the right.
* In the ''TuffPuppy'' episode "Watch Dog" Dudley uses a time travel watch to go back and beat Kitty to the last donut. This somehow changes the present so Snaptrap has taken over the world. [[spoiler:And at the end, Dudley uses it again when he misses the ice cream truck and this somehow changes the present so he's wearing pants.]]

* In ''The Science of Literature/{{Discworld}} II'' the mages' meddling with time (trying to make sure {{Shakespeare}} is born and becomes the great poet he is supposed to be) accidentally results in the first potato being brought to Europe.

* In ''The Science of {{Discworld}} II'' the mages' meddling with time (trying to make sure {{Shakespeare}} is born and becomes the great poet he is supposed to be) accidentally results in the first potato being brought to Europe.

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* In one issue of ''{{PS238}}'', Tyler is shown glimpses of alternate timelines in which he was born with different superpowers. In most, the visible changes make sense as consequences of that Tyler's powers, but there's one where everybody is in the middle of a crisis that [[{{Foreshadowing}} starts up ten issues later in the main storyline]], and there's no obvious reason why it should happen sooner in the other timeline just because Tyler has gravity-manipulating powers.

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* For his review of ''{{The Room}}'' WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic travels to the future. After his returning he sees, that the wall behind him now have another colour. Nothing else changed, just an another wall. [[FurryFandom And he has a tail.]]

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* In the ''[[TuffPuppy T.U.F.F. Puppy]]'' episode "Watch Dog" Dudley uses a time travel watch to go back and beat Kitty to the last donut. This somehow changes the present so Snaptrap has taken over the world. [[spoiler:And at the end, Dudley uses it again when he misses the ice cream truck and this somehow changes the present so he's wearing pants.]]

* In the ''TuffPuppy'' episode "Watch Dog" Dudley going back in time to beat Kitty to the last donut somehow results in a bad present where Snaptrap has taken over the city. And at the end, when Dudley uses the time travel watch again to catch the ice cream truck, this somehow changes the present so he's wearing pants.

* Many issues of Marvel's ''WhatIf...?'' fall into this trap.

* ''RedDwarf'' uses this in "Timeslides", when [[spoiler: the last change to the timeline puts everything back how it was except that Rimmer is alive. He dies seconds later and the change in his backstory is apparently forgotten]].

* For his review of ''{{The Room}}'' WebOriginal/TheNostalgiaCritic travels to the future. After his returning he sees, that the wall behind him now have another colour. Nothing else changed, just an another wall. [[FurryFandom And he has a tail.]]

A SubTrope of ForWantOfANail, when the changes seem unlikely (even by chaos theory), or even outright impossible, from the particular change in the past. Even if the timeline is set right, there might be some changes that just don't make sense, even by how things were set right.

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* This is pretty much how chaos works. When a butterfly flaps its wings, it interferes with future weather. All future weather, anywhere on the planet. It will also change Brownian motion, and everything that implies. Now all the kids will be different.

* On ''FamilyGuy'', Peter went back in time to relive his teenaged years and as a result Lois ends up married to Quagmire and Peter is married to Molly Ringwald. Also Al Gore is the President, we have universal health care, no crime or poverty, non-polluting flying cars that run on vegetable oil, and Dick Cheney, Antonin Scalia, Karl Rove and Tucker Carlson are all dead. But worst of all, Chevy Chase is hosting ''TheTonightShow''. Peter manages to fix everything, but [[AmericanDad Roger the alien]] is now a member of the Griffin household.
* Inverted in the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Late Philip J. Fry," Professor Farnsworth [[spoiler: assassinates Hitler in the early 1930's in one timeline and accidentally assassinates Eleanor Roosevelt in another]] but in both cases the year 3010 they return to appears to be exactly the same, except for being ten feet lower and five feet to the right.

* For his review of ''{{The Room}}'' TheNostalgiaCritic travels to the future. After his returning he sees, that the wall behind him now have another colour. Nothing else changed, just an another wall. [[FurryFandom And he has a tail.]]

** Possibly something of a GeniusBonus, since Tim Burners-Lee, (who invented the World Wide Web[[hottip:*:''Not'' the interenet, that's merely the result of computer networds growing large enough to cover the Earth. Burners-Lee himself credits the creation of the internet to Vint Cerf and Bob Khan who developed IP protacols.]] by way of being in charge of the team who developed HTML protacols) originally planned on calling his invention [[FunWithAcronyms The Infomation Mine]], before realising the acronym was "un peu egoiste".

* Many issues of Marvel's ''WhatIf...?'' fall into this trap. Perhaps most emblematic of this is "What If... Captain America had formed the Avengers?" Well, the Allies would have won WWII much sooner, the Super Soldier serum would never have been lost, the Red Skull would have secretly replaced the frozen Captain America and gradually turned the US into a simulacrum of Nazi Germany, superheroes would be outlawed, the Punisher would be Iron Man, Wolverine would be a Wendigo called the Hulk, and the Falcon would be Giant Man.

* In a WonderfulLife episode of ''TheFairlyOddParents'', it turns out that if Timmy had never been born, AJ would have hair, Elmer wouldn't have a boil and a non-braceface Chester with Timmy's fairy godparents.

** May overlap with MakeABetterWorld for [[FetishFuel some]].

* ''DirkGently's Holistic Detective Agency'' has a perfectly lampshaded use of the trope. Early in the book, it turns out that in bringing the coelacanth from prehistory to the early 20th century to be rediscovered, the dodo went extinct, and that was the end of a short chain of similar changes. At the end of the book, after [[spoiler: the main characters go back to the dawn of life on earth]], Dirk finds out that [[spoiler:his secretary was still working for him, and a cat that he'd spent the last eleven years searching for had never gotten lost in the first place]].

* On ''FamilyGuy'', Peter went back in time to relive his teenaged years and as a result Lois ends up married to Quagmire and Peter is married to Molly Ringwald. Also Al Gore is the President, we have universal health care, no crime or poverty, and non-polluting flying cars that run on vegetable oil. And worst of all, Chevy Chase is hosting ''TheTonightShow''. Peter manages to fix everything, but [[AmericanDad Roger the alien]] is now a member of the Griffin household.

* On ''FamilyGuy'', Peter went back in time to relive his teenaged years and almost lost Lois to Quagmire; he manages to fix everything, but [[AmericanDad Roger the alien]] is now inexplicably a member of the Griffin household.

* Inverted in the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Late Philip J. Fry," Professor Farnsworth [[spoiler: assassinates Hitler in the early 1930's in one timeline and accidentally assassinates Eleanor Roosevelt in another]] but in both cases the year 3010 they return to appears to be exactly the same.

* ''StargateSG1'': After SG-1 is sent back in time they start a revolution against the Goul'd, the problem is that the Goul'd take away the stargate and the alternative SG-1 has to go back in time and put things as they were. The only diffrence is that Jack's lake now has fish.

** Possibly something of a GeniusBonus, since Tim Burners-Lee, (who invented the World Wide Web[[hottip:''Not'' the interenet, that's merely the result of computer networds growing large enough to cover the Earth]] by way of being in charge of the team who developed HTML protacols) originally planned on calling his invention [[FunWithAcronyms The Infomation Mine]], before realising the acronym was a little self serving.

* ''StargateSG1'' After SG1 is sent back in time they start a revolution against the Goul'd, the problem is that the Goul'd take away the stargate and the alternative SG1 has to go back in time and put things as they were. The only diffrence is that Jack's lake now has fish.

* Season 4 of {{Eureka}}: Despite removing one of the town's founders from the timeline in 1947, the biggest changes that occur in the resulting future are that a few people have different jobs, Henry's married, and Jo's not dating Zane anymore.
* In {{Primeval}}, leaving a couple of Future Predators in the past somehow changes Claudia Brown into Jenny Lewis, gives the team a new HQ, and alters Connor's ''dress sense''.