History Main / WrongTimeTravelSavvy

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' episode "The Once and Future Thing: Time, Warped", Static concludes that the heroes' victory is a ForegoneConclusion because Bruce Wayne is still alive in [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond the future]]. Bruce explains that it's not that simple -- he has no memory of traveling into the future during his younger days as Batman, which means that the timeline is not definitively fixed.

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': [[ComicBook/AntMan Scott Lang]] and Rhodey expect time travel to work just like in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' and every other movie dealing with the subject. A frustrated Hulk explicitly tells them that time travel doesn't work that way. For instance, Scott believes in NeverTheSelvesShallMeet, while [[spoiler:present [[Characters/MCUCaptainAmerica Steve]] ends up in a MirrorMatch with the Steve from just after [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the Battle of New York]].]]

-->'''Farnsworth:''' You mustn't interfere with the past. Don't do anything that affects anything, unless it turns out you were supposed to do it. In which case, for the love of God, don't not do it!

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'''s "Roswell That Ends Well," Farnsworth has no idea how in-universe time travel works since it's an uncommon event that can only happen through a freak accident. [[spoiler:[[YouAlreadyChangedThePast It turns out the past is unalterable]], though the series as a whole made it [[TimeyWimeyBall more variable]], [[FridgeBrilliance potentially making Farnsworth]] [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight actually correct]].]]

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': [[ComicBook/AntMan Scott Lang]] and Rhodey expect time travel to work just like in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' and every other movie dealing with the subject. A frustrated Hulk explicitly tells them that time travel doesn't work that way.(for instance, Scott believes in NeverTheSelvesShallMeet, while [[spoiler:present [[Characters/MCUCaptainAmerica Steve]] ends up in a MirrorMatch with the Steve from just after [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the Battle of New York]]]]).

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': [[ComicBook/AntMan Scott Lang]] expects time travel to work just like ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', which the other Avengers ridicule him for (for instance, Scott believes in NeverTheSelvesShallMeet, while [[spoiler:present [[Characters/MCUCaptainAmerica Steve]] ends up in a MirrorMatch with the Steve from just after [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the Battle of New York]]]]).

** Arguably, in ''Film/TheTerminator'', Kyle and Skynet [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast erroneously believe history can be changed]]. Then ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' retcons it so that they're right.

* In ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' and ''Series/AshesToAshes'', both protagonists [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong attempt to change history]], but fail despite their best efforts, leading them to draw the conclusion that the past cannot be changed. They also meet close relations and have close encounters with, but deliberately avoid actually meeting themselves. Then suddenly in series 2 of ''Ashes'', it all goes to hell when the BigBad [[spoiler:shoots his younger self in the face and frames Alex for the murder]]. NeverTheSelvesShallMeet [[SubvertedTrope indeed]].

* In the 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' film, old Spock claims NeverTheSelvesShallMeet to convince Kirk not to reveal his existence to his past self. He's actually lying, and just wanted to keep away from them so their friendship would develop naturally, but Kirk had no way to know that.

* In the 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' film, old Spock claims NeverTheSelvesShallMeet to convince Kirk not to reveal his existence to his past self. He's actually lying, but Kirk had no way to know that.

* In the 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' film, old Spock relies on Kirk's lack of knowledge about the mechanics of time travel in convincing Kirk not to reveal old Spock's existence to his past self.

* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "1969", Carter spends most of the episode telling the rest of the team they have to be careful not to change the past. Yet she doesn't seem to realize that Hammond's handing them the note before they left pretty much proves they're in a StableTimeLoop. But this fits with Carter's regular habit of introducing unnecessary complications into other people's plans just because the writers think it makes her look smarter.

* ''The Time Ships'' by Creator/StephenBaxter is a sequel to Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', detailing the Time Traveler's adventures after he vanishes at the end of the first book. He's heading back to the future to rescue Weena (a rare instance of SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong in which the "once" is in the future, though in his personal past), but finds the future [[ButterflyOfDoom radically changed]] because his story was published as a novel, preventing the BadFuture of Eloi and Morlocks. After learning this he [[LampshadeHanging muses dismally]] about how he'd expected history to be like a room he could move through while it remained basically unchanged.

* Creator/LarryNiven:
** In ''Get A Horse'' (and the other stories in the Svetz series) features time travel based on the premise that, since time travel is impossible, [[InsaneTrollLogic if you travel back in time you actually enter a fantasy world.]] Thus, when the hero goes back in time to bring back a horse, he finds a unicorn. When he goes back to bring back a whale, he finds Moby Dick, and so on. No one in the series ever figures out that they aren't visiting the past, but rather are visiting fiction. Svetz, the titular protagonist, also finds a werewolf when he is after a dog, and finds a Roc chick when going after an ostrich.
** In ''Rainbow Mars'', the pattern continues, as the ancient Mars the characters visit contains elements from fictional Marses created by Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, Creator/RayBradbury, Creator/HGWells and others.

** One interpretation of ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' (and the whole series) is that the characters are tragically wrong about the whole "no fate" thing.

** Arguably, in ''Film/TheTerminator'', Kyle and Skynet erroneously believe history can be changed. Then ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' retcons it so that they're right.

* Alfred Bester's ''The Men Who Murdered Mohammed'' plays around with this. A scientist attempts to erase his wife out of existence after he finds her cheating on him. He whips up a time machine, and goes back in time to kill her grandfather. [[spoiler:The catch? It doesn't work. So, he works bigger, rampaging through time, killing more and more famous people (hence the title, as even when he murders the founder of a major world religion nothing changes) with absolutely no effect on the present until, finally, he meets a fellow time traveler who explains that the past he's killing is his own, and he's unhinged himself from reality because of his actions]].

* ''The Time Ships'' by StephenBaxter is a sequel to Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', detailing the Time Traveler's adventures after he vanishes at the end of the first book. He's heading back to the future to rescue Weena (a rare instance of SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong in which the "once" is in the future, though in his personal past), but finds the future [[ButterflyOfDoom radically changed]] because his story was published as a novel, preventing the BadFuture of Eloi and Morlocks. After learning this he [[LampshadeHanging muses dismally]] about how he'd expected history to be like a room he could move through while it remained basically unchanged.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': [[BigBad Nox]] wants to set the universe back two centuries to [[spoiler:[[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong save his family]]]] by [[TimTaylorTechnology amplifying]] existing [[TimeMaster time-control magic]] as much as possible, [[PoweredByAForsakenChild however possible]]. [[BigGood Grougaloragran]] says this is likely to just destroy the universe, but Nox is [[{{Pride}} very sure of himself]] and [[TheUnfettered unconcerned with the consequences of being wrong]]. [[spoiler:Turns out Nox was closer to the truth, but not by enough. He really could turn back time without damaging the universe, but even with as much power as he could possibly obtain, his target was about five '''million''' time as far back as he could go.]]

* In the 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' film, old Spock relies on Kirk's lack of knowledge about the mechanics of time travel in convincing Kirk not to reveal old Spock's existence to his past self.
* ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'' starts with the main characters seeming to know how time travel works, but by the end it's a bit more ambiguous whether they do or not. This is probably because the main character starts to feel like he's losing his mind and possibly dreaming up the whole future nonsense in his own mind.
* The main characters of ''Film/{{Primer}}'' start out by taking elaborate precautions to avoid changing the timeline too much. By the end of the movie, they've realized that they're in a branching universe-type situation where they can totally ignore these precautions. [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble By then, they've already spun the timeline wildly out of control]].

* Alfred Bester's ''The Men Who Murdered Mohammed'' plays around with this. A scientist attempts to erase his wife out of existence after he finds her cheating on him. He whips up a time machine, and goes back in time to kill her grandfather. [[spoiler:The catch? It doesn't work. So, he works bigger, rampaging through time, killing more and more famous people (hence the title, as even when he murders the founder of a major world religion nothing changes) with absolutely no effect on the present until, finally, he meets a fellow time traveler who explains that the past he's killing is his own, and he's unhinged himself from reality because of his actions]].

* In Literature/{{Dinoverse}} this once comes up. Four children have accidentally had their minds converted into "pure thought-energy brainwaves" and sent to the Cretaceous into the bodies of large prehistoric reptiles; as they're orienting themselves and wondering what happened, they get a message from the distant future, from sixty years ''after'' the accident. The message claims that they've been comatose for all sixty years but then posits a way they might get back and to an instant after the accident. The characters worry about this off and on, wondering if it means they've already failed, or if there's some paradox making it possible, or if they'll be dictating that message in the future.
* Creator/ConnieWillis' works, particularly Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog and Literature/{{Blackout}}. The protagonists spend a lot of time worrying about [[ButterflyOfDoom the Butterfly Effect]] and have a fairly well-developed theory of RubberBandHistory... but in every case it seems to work out as YouAlreadyChangedThePast.
* DowntimingTheNightside basically runs on this. As the story begins, time travel is brand-new and the people working with it are gradually piecing the rules together as they go along. There's a ''lot'' they miss, as protagonist Ron Moosic learns when he starts running into people from the future, who fill in several of the gaps. And then it turns out [[ZigZaggedTrope they don't really understand it either]] and are doing the same thing, just with more experience to work from. The understood rules of time travel are constantly twisted and broken, but the truth is that [[JustifiedTrope nobody truly knows what the rules actually]] ''[[JustifiedTrope are]]'' , which leads to, among other things, a truly ''epic'' instance of ScrewYourself.

* In ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' and ''Series/AshesToAshes'', both protagonists [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong attempt to change history]], but fail despite their best efforts, leading them to draw the conclusion that the past cannot be changed. They also meet close relations and have close encounters with, but deliberately avoid actually meeting themselves. Then suddenly in series 2 of ''Ashes'', it all goes to hell when the BigBad [[spoiler:shoots his younger self in the face and frames Alex for the murder]]. NeverTheSelvesShallMeet [[SubvertedTrope indeed]].

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had several examples during its long run -- it doesn't hurt that the series itself doesn't stick to any hard rules about what you can and can't change. The Doctor often has to tell companions that they can't rely on ForegoneConclusion when facing threats in their relative pasts.

* In ''Webcomic/FrankieAndStein'' Shelly is quite wrong when she insists that [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet meeting the future versions of themselves]] would cause her and Stein's [[YourHeadASplode heads to explode]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': [[BigBad Nox]] wants to set the universe back two centuries to [[spoiler:[[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong save his family]]]] by [[TimTaylorTechnology amplifying]] existing [[TimeMaster time-control magic]] as much as possible, [[PoweredByAForsakenChild however possible]]. [[BigGood Grougaloragran]] says this is likely to just destroy the universe, but Nox is [[{{Pride}} very sure of himself]] and [[TheUnfettered unconcerned with the consequences of being wrong]]. [[spoiler:Turns out Nox was closer to the truth, but not by enough. He really could turn back time without damaging the universe, but even with as much power as he could possibly obtain, his target was about five '''million''' time as far back as he could go.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Justice League}} Unlimited'' episode "The Once and Future Thing: Time, Warped", Static concludes that the heroes' victory is a {{foregone conclusion}} because Bruce Wayne is still alive in [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond the future]]. Bruce explains that it's not that simple -- he has no memory of traveling into the future during his younger days as Batman, which means that the timeline is not definitively fixed.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': [[BigBad Nox]] wants to set the universe back two centuries to [[spoiler:[[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong save his family]]]] by [[TimTaylorTechnology amplifying]] existing [[TimeMaster time-control magic]] as much as possible, [[PoweredByAForsakenChild however possible]]. [[BigGood Grougaloragran]] says this is likely to just destroy the universe, but Nox is [[{{Pride}} very sure of himself]] and [[TheUnfettered unconcerned with the consequences of being wrong]]. [[spoiler:Turns out Nox was closer to the truth, but not by enough. He really could turn back time without damaging the universe, but even with ideal condition, his target was about five '''million''' time as far back as he could go.]]

* In ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' and ''Series/AshesToAshes'', both protagonists [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong attempt to change history]], but fail despite their best efforts, leading them to draw the conclusion that the past cannot be changed. They also meet close relations and have close encounters with, but deliberately avoid actually meeting themselves. Then suddenly in series 2 of {{A|shesToAshes}}2A it all goes to hell when the BigBad [[spoiler:shoots his younger self in the face and frames Alex for the murder]]. NeverTheSelvesShallMeet [[SubvertedTrope indeed]].

* In ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' and ''AshesToAshes'', both protagonists [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong attempt to change history]], but fail despite their best efforts, leading them to draw the conclusion that the past cannot be changed. They also meet close relations and have close encounters with, but deliberately avoid actually meeting themselves. Then suddenly in series 2 of {{A|shesToAshes}}2A it all goes to hell when the BigBad [[spoiler:shoots his younger self in the face and frames Alex for the murder]]. NeverTheSelvesShallMeet [[SubvertedTrope indeed]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' gives us [[spoiler:Nox]], whose goal is to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. [[spoiler:[[AlasPoorVillain Unfortunately for him]], time travel within the World of Twelve not only consumes ridiculous amounts of power, it quite possibly tears holes in the universe as well.]]

'''Martha Jones:''' It's like [[YouWatchTooMuchX in those films]]: [[ButterflyOfDoom If you step on a butterfly, you change the future of the human race.]]\\
'''The Doctor:''' Then, don't step on any butterflies. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint What have butterflies ever done to you?]]

* In the episode "Paraducks", Gosalyn advises WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck to not interfere when they get sent back in time to his childhood. Back to the present, and the city's held in the grip of a crime lord. Turns out they were in the middle of a StableTimeLoop instead..