History Main / YouAlreadyChangedThePast

Note that YouAlreadyChangedThePast == YouCannotChangeTheFuture, which is the version of [[YouCantFightFate fatalism]] found in many [[OlderThanDirt older]] works, such as Greek Drama, that don't involve time travel.

The Ancient [[ClassicalMythology Greeks]] and [[NorseMythology Vikings]] ''loved'' the notion that [[YouCannotChangeTheFuture There Is Only One Possible Future]], and their works heavily imply that they believed in this specific notion of time (which even the Gods were trapped in). Although they used predictions rather than time travel, the effect is the same. Many first-time readers of the classics who don't buy into this notion of time, or don't realize this is ''why'' YouCantFightFate in the classics, have a hard time accepting TheFatalist behavior of classical Greek and European heroes.

Note that YouAlreadyChangedThePast --> YouCannotChangeTheFuture, which is the version of [[YouCantFightFate fatalism]] found in many [[OlderThanDirt older works]], that don't involve time travel.

The Ancient Greeks and Vikings ''loved'' the notion that [[YouCannotChangeTheFuture There Is Only One Possible Future]], and their works heavily imply that they believed in this specific notion of time (which even the Gods were trapped in). Although they used predictions rather than time travel, the effect is the same. Many first-time readers of the classics who don't buy into this notion of time, or don't realize this is ''why'' YouCantFightFate in the classics, have a hard time accepting TheFatalist behavior of classical Greek and European heroes.

Note that YouAlreadyChangedThePast --> [[YouCannotChangeTheFuture There Is Only One Possible Future]], which is the version of [[YouCantFightFate fatalism]] found in some older works, that don't involve time travel.

The Ancient Greeks and Vikings ''loved'' the notion that YouCannotChangeTheFuture, and their works heavily imply that they believed in this specific notion of time (which even the Gods were trapped in). Although they used predictions rather than time travel, the effect is the same. Many first-time readers of the classics who don't buy into this notion of time, or don't realize this is ''why'' YouCantFightFate in the classics, have a hard time accepting TheFatalist behavior of classical Greek and European heroes.

->But this is illusion. Things have their shape in time, not space alone. Some marble blocks have statues within them, embedded in their future... Any moment now, Janey's watchband will break. Somewhere, the fat man is already lumbering toward the shooting gallery, steps heavy with unwitting destiny.

This trope ''arguably'' makes the most sense when considering time travel from a scientific point of view, see the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle Novikov self-consistency principle]].[[hottip:*:Novikov's self-consistency principle is was named "the Law of Conservation of History" by LarryNiven in his short piece "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel," published at least ten years prior to Novikov's work. Of course, LarryNiven is a ScienceFiction writer, which may explain why [[SciFiGhetto nobody cares]]. Alternatively, this is an illustration of something called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy Stigler's Law of Eponymy]]: nothing ever gets named after the first person to discover it.]] However, the number of time-travel plots that it allows for are extremely limited and the logic gets complicated ''very'' quickly. This, however, also has the side-effect of creating a '[[FunctionalMagic self-correcting universe]]' usually by a slew of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s (ie. if you try to shoot your grandfather the gun will jam; if you try poisoning him he will recover; if you try strangling him you will be overcome; if you wear PowerArmor from the future you will have second thoughts; if you try [[BeyondTheImpossible sending a bomb back through time and detonating it directly inside his chest]] the time machine will break down). This can also lead to a scenario where the ''only'' reason why the past is not changed is because someone else says 'you cannot' and you take his advice. Meaning ''the advice itself'' is apart of the universe's self-correcting nature.

This trope ''arguably'' makes the most sense when considering time travel from a scientific point of view, see the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle Novikov self-consistency principle]]. However, the number of time-travel plots that it allows for are extremely limited and the logic gets complicated ''very'' quickly. This, however, also has the side-effect of creating a '[[FunctionalMagic self-correcting universe]]' usually by a slew of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s (ie. if you try to shoot your grandfather the gun will jam; if you try poisoning him he will recover; if you try strangling him you will be overcome; if you wear PowerArmor from the future you will have second thoughts; if you try [[BeyondTheImpossible sending a bomb back through time and detonating it directly inside his chest]] the time machine will break down). This can also lead to a scenario where the ''only'' reason why the past is not changed is because someone else says 'you cannot' and you take his advice. Meaning ''the advice itself'' is apart of the universe's self-correcting nature.

Nitpick: Novikov's self-consistency principle is OlderThanTheyThink. It was named "the Law of Conservation of History" by LarryNiven in his short piece "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel," published at least ten years prior to Novikov's work. Of course, LarryNiven is a ScienceFiction writer, which may explain why [[SciFiGhetto nobody cares]]. Alternatively, this is an illustration of something called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy Stigler's Law of Eponymy]]: nothing ever gets named after the first person to discover it.

** Also, one character who pulls a FaceHeelTurn halfway through is fated to pull a HeelFaceTurn back, given that his future self is the protagonist's father.

* Played straight on ''{{Futurama}}'', where Fry ends up in 1947 and spends half the episode just trying to make sure his grandfather doesn't die. After the professor warns him not to change the past ''unless'' he was already destined to change the past, Fry's extreme caution and stupidity result in his grandfather being vaporized by an atomic bomb. However, subsequent events make it clear that the [[TrickedOutTime man Fry killed was not actually]] Fry's grandfather, and that his real grandfather is [[spoiler: Fry himself.]]

You [[TimeTravel go back in time]] to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, only to discover that the "changes" you're making to the past are just causing things that "already" happened to happen. In other words, there was no "first time around" - the past only happened once and there were no different "versions" of it. It's like being Time's own personal XanatosSucker.

* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', only [[TimeMaster Dave, the Knight of Time]] gets to go back in time and create {{Alternate Universe}}s. Everyone else, no matter how much they've screwed around with the timeline, can only make {{Stable Time Loop}}s, and the Trolls regularly insist that they've already lost the game and that YouCantFightFate. It probably helps that all in-universe timechanging items have built-in failsafes against causing paradoxes.

This trope ''arguably'' makes the most sense when considering time travel from a scientific point of view, see the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle Novikov self-consistency principle]]. However, the number of time-travel plots that it allows for are extremely limited and the logic gets complicated ''very'' quickly. This, however, also has the side-effect of creating a '[[FunctionalMagic self-correcting universe]]' usually by a slew of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s (ie. if you try to shoot your grandfather the gun will jam; if you try poisoning him he will recover; if you try strangling him you will be overcome; if you wear PowerArmor from the future you will have second thoughts; if you try [[BeyondTheImpossible sending a bomb back through time and directly inside his chest]] the time machine will break down). This can also lead to a scenario where the ''only'' reason why the past is not changed is because someone else says 'you cannot' and you take his advice. Meaning ''the advice itself'' is apart of the universe's self-correcting nature.

This trope ''arguably'' makes the most sense when considering time travel from a scientific point of view, see the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle Novikov self-consistency principle]]. However, the number of time-travel plots that it allows for are extremely limited and the logic gets complicated ''very'' quickly. This, however, also has the side-effect of creating a 'self-correcting universe' usually by a slew of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s (ie. if you try to shoot your grandfather the gun will jam; if you try poisoning him he will recover; if you try strangling him you will be overcome; if you wear PowerArmor from the future you will have second thought; if you try sending a bomb back inside his chest the time machine will break down). This can also lead to a scenario where the ''only'' reason why the past is not changed is because someone else says 'you cannot'.

This trope ''arguably'' makes the most sense when considering time travel from a scientific point of view, see the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle Novikov self-consistency principle]]. However, the number of time-travel plots that it allows for are extremely limited and the logic gets complicated ''very'' quickly. This, however, also has the side-effect of creating a 'self-correcting universe' usually by a slew of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s (ie. if you try to shoot your grandfather the gun will jam; if you poisoning him he will recover; if you try strangling him you will be overcome; if you wear PowerArmor from the future you will have second thought; if you try sending a bomb back inside his chest the time machine will break down). This can also lead to a scenario where the ''only'' reason why the past is not changed is because someone else says 'you cannot'.

This trope ''arguably'' makes the most sense when considering time travel from a scientific point of view, see the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle Novikov self-consistency principle]]. However, the number of time-travel plots that it allows for are extremely limited and the logic gets complicated ''very'' quickly. This, however, also has the side-effect of creating a 'self-correcting universe' usually by a slew of ContrivedCoincidences (ie. if you try to shoot your grandfather the gun will jam; if you poisoning him he will recover; if you try strangling him you will be overcome; if you wear PowerArmor from the future you will have second thought; if you try sending a bomb back inside his chest the time machine will break down). This can also lead to a scenario where the ''only'' reason why the past is not changed is because someone else says 'you cannot'.

This trope is notable in that it makes the most sense when considering time travel from a scientific point of view, see the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle Novikov self-consistency principle]]. However, the number of time-travel plots that it allows for are extremely limited and the logic gets complicated ''very'' quickly.

Note that YouAlreadyChangedThePast ==> [[YouCannotChangeTheFuture There Is Only One Possible Future]], which is the version of [[YouCantFightFate fatalism]] found in some older works, that don't involve time travel.

* The Vikings in ''[[TheThirteenthWarrior The 13th Warrior]]'' are [[TheFatalist fatalistic]] about death in battle because ''"The skein of my life was woven long ago and no man can change it."''

* Achilles in the movie ''{{Troy}}'', (along with all the other ''[[{{Homer}} Iliad]]'' characters) believes {{you cannot change the future}}:
-->'''Achilles:''' The Gods envy '''us'''. They envy us because [[WeAreAsMayflies we're mortal]]... Everything is more beautiful ''because'' we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.

**** Though the episode "2010" does subvert this trope, unless you consider 99% of the episode to be the second iteration of the StableTimeLoop. In that one, the now-retired members of SG-1 discover that supposedly benevolent aliens have actually sterilized most of humanity, as part of a plan to turn them into a pastoral world, turning Earth into a massive farm for the aliens. SG-1 manages to send a message back in time to warn the SGC not to go to the planet the aliens live on, mere seconds before they head out to explore the planet, thus changing the timeline. Of course, they just run into the aliens later on at a different planet, so this maybe makes it more like the Terminator 3 example.

**** Disregard that last comment -epic spoilers ahoy- [[spoiler: That isn't an alternate timeline, it's a flashforward.]]

**** Though the episode 2001 does subvert this trope, unless you consider 99% of the episode to be the second iteration of the StableTimeLoop. In that one, the now-retired members of SG-1 discover that supposedly benevolent aliens have actually sterilized most of humanity, as part of a plan to turn them into a pastoral world, turning Earth into a massive farm for the aliens. SG-1 manages to send a message back in time to warn the SGC not to go to the planet the aliens live on, mere seconds before they head out to explore the planet, thus changing the timeline. Of course, they just run into the aliens later on at a different planet, so this maybe makes it more like the Terminator 3 example.

* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', only [[TimeMaster Dave]] gets to go back in time and create {{Alternate Universe}}s. Everyone else, no matter how much they've screwed around with the timeline, can only make {{Stable Time Loop}}s. It probably helps that all in-universe timechanging items have built-in failsafes against causing paradoxes.

* Used extensively in ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' this seems to be the whole purpose of future(er) Asahina. Who is suspected to be the superior of Present(or rather not-so-future) Asahina, and puts her younger self trough all the missions and trouble she already went trough herself. So she already changed the past because she will order herself to go to the past and change it so she can get to the future and order herself to change the past SoYeah

* The only time-travel arc on ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' involves this trope, and it is absolutely central to both the MythArc and the background mythology of the show. [[spoiler:Babylon 4 appears in Babylon 5 space four years after it disappears (the episode "Babylon Squared." The events leading up to that appearance are explained in the two-parter "War Without End," in which we find out that Babylon 4 was taken to the year 1260 AD (or so) to help the Minbari and their allies gather to fight the Shadows. To prevent this from happening, the Shadows sent a big bomb to Babylon 4 just as it was about to come on line in 2254. However, the White Star also goes back in time (because Delenn, Sinclair, Sheridan, and Ivanova see it in a recording), destroys the bomb, and (as it turns out) takes it back in time as well. However, this is not before the time device (sent by Draal and transported by Zathras) malfunctions, dropping Babylon 4 into 2258, leading to the events of "Babylon Squared." Sinclair then realizes that he must take Babylon 4 back in time himself, and then uses the triluminary device to turn himself into a Minbari--specifically, Valen, who led them in the First Shadow War, organized their society, and effectively became the main prophet of their religion. SoYeah...]]

***But the problem with that theory is that Nero arrived in the TOS time line ''twenty-something years'' before the destruction of Romulus. He destroyed Kirk's father's ship, remember? The ball was in motion before Kirk was even born, and Spock would presumably have been at least in his youth by then.