History Main / YouAlreadyChangedThePast

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. After discovering that they're all on prehistoric Earth, Dinobot's mind becomes consumed with the question of whether he actually has free will, or whether this trope is in effect and all of his actions in the past are predetermined. His question is answered when he spies on Megatron and sees him experimenting with altering the future by blasting a mountain and checking an image of the future version of the mountain. When the image changes before their eyes to show the chunk missing, Dinobot realizes that the future can indeed be changed. Ironically, the knowledge that he is indeed free to make his own choices causes him to feel like he has no choice but to invoke the trope ''anyway'', because Megatron wants to change the future for the ''worse'' and he's the only one close enough to stop him before it's too late, [[HeroicSacrifice even if it costs him his own life]].
-->'''Dinobot:''' The question that once haunted my being has been answered: the future is not fixed, and my choices are my own. And yet... how ironic, for I now find that I have no choice at all! ''[transforms to robot mode]'' I am a warrior... Let the battle be joined....

** Goliath tried to convince Demona in the past not to turn evil, and she seems to take it all to heart. Unfortunately, one guy, even the love of your life, telling you to "stay good" is trumped by centuries of being [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters brutalized by humans]]. It's a true TearJerker to realize that Demona and Goliath were once really and truly HappilyMarried.
*** During the same incident, Demona also tried to warn her younger self of the destruction of her clan in order to turn her against the humans. Demona is in massive denial, however; she herself was one of the major causes of that very destruction, in one of her anti-human plots.
** David Xanatos uses this to his advantage. He gives two period coins to the Illuminati, along [[WriteBackToTheFuture with a letter]], giving instructions to deliver them both to himself in the future. As explained by Xanatos himself, the coins are like pennies in the year 975 A.D., but by 1975, they're very valuable and would end up being the coins that started his fortune. The letter, of course, is to tell him how to do just that.

* ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha'': in ''Woulda Coulda Hasbeena'', Señor Hasbeena uses a time portal to go back to 1972 and prevent a flash of light that briefly blinded him and killed his career as a professional luchador. Ricochet, Buena Girl, and Flea try to stop him because his time travel is altering the present and, in the ensuing fight, present-day Señor Hasbeena uses a signature move that creates the very flash of light that ruined him in the past.

** Xanatos uses this to his advantage. He gives two period coins to the Illuminati, along [[WriteBackToTheFuture with a letter]], giving instructions to delver them both to himself in the future. The coins are like pennies in the past, but by the present they're very valuable and are the coins that started his fortune. The letter, of course, is to tell him to do just that.

* Eoin Colfer's ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' Time Paradox [[spoiler:The matter is discussed before they actually TimeTravel and Artemis presumes that whatever happened in the past cannot be changed. It turns out he's right. It also lets a huge variety of crazy actions take place.]]
** Strangely, the previous book in the series, ''The Lost Colony'', completely averts this trope in favor of shooting hoops with the TimeyWimeyBall. Artemis manages to [[spoiler:bring multiple people BackFromTheDead]] by firing a stun-gun into the recent past, although it may be justified with the fact that [[TimeCrash time was currently going bonkers]].

** In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', the 1955 Doc averts this. He specifically sends Marty back to a point in 1885 after 1985 Doc has left the letter with Western Union. As seen in ''Part III'', they didn't do anything about it, which allowed for normal 70+ year delivery: "and the Western Union guy lost the bet!".

*** Subverted in the second season episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E49BackThere Back There]]", in which a young engineer has a discussion with his fellow rich friends about this topic. He then finds himself back in time to the night of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He desperately tries to warn everyone that Lincoln will be assassinated, but he's brushed off as drunk and a man named Wellington (who late turns out to be John Wilkes Booth) takes him in. While in his care Wellington drugs him and goes to assassinate Lincoln. When the engineer wakes up, the president is shot mere moments later and he discovers the man who drugged him was in fact John Wilkes Booth. When he goes back to his original timeline, he discovers he did actually change one thing. The police officer who believed him and tried to save the president got promoted to chief of police then a councilman and later became a millionaire allowing his descendant (who in the original timeline was an attendant at club the engineer was a part of) to inherit his fortune.
*** Played straight in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E112NoTimeLikeThePast No Time Like the Past]]", in which after a scientist fails several times to change history, he decides to go back to a time where there were no issues, 1888. Upon realizing there will be a fire at the school, so he tries to stop it, but when a horse and buggy swerves to avoid hitting him, it launches a lantern which hits the school causing the aforementioned fire.
** In the ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E20AProfileInSilver Profile in Silver]]", a time travelling historian saves his ancestor UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy from being assassinated. The resulting damage to space time then creates a timeline where WorldWarIII and the extinction of humanity is inevitable. Kennedy volunteers to go back to set things right but the historian instead sends Kennedy to the future and takes Kennedy's place in the motorcade, being assassinated in his place. A colleague of the historian then tells the Secret Service agent who helped him that "Even the act of traveling in time is part of history" and that the historian's sacrifice was part of the "correct" timeline.
** In the ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'' episode "Cradle of Darkness", a young woman (played by Katherine Heigl) is one of the few people capable of surviving time travel. She agrees to take a one-way trip to the past to kill Hitler as a baby (it's not clear why the future people think that the new reality will be better). She pretends to be a new maid and ingrains herself into the Hitler family, realizing that Hitler Sr. is the one who taught his son to hate the "lesser races". In the end, she grabs the baby and jumps into the river (also unexplained why she had to jump herself, possibly guilt for killing an as-yet-innocent baby, though it was mentioned in the beginning it was a one way trip so it's not like she could get back to her original timeline). The other maid, takes a homeless gypsy's baby and passes it off as young Adolf. So yeah, if this is believed, Hitler was one of the "lesser races" he hated so much.

* ''Manga/RaveMaster'': After much time is spent freaking out over what horrible ways they've twisted the past, Sieg, Elie, and Haru (but mostly Sieg) discover that [[spoiler:all their actions caused the future they were trying to protect by not taking those actions. Haru made it very clear to the knight that the criminals he brought had invaded the castle ten days earlier, and that the knight was to take credit for catching them, which we see him talking about at the time Haru gave 50 years later. Getting Resha kidnapped enforced the king's decesion to have her fake her own death, leading her into the future where she get's amnesia and meets Haru, and ditching Sieg in the past leads to him being there to set the whole time loop up and make sure they mess with the past like they're supposed to.]]

* Music/{{Stereophonics}}: In "A Thousand Trees", a man sees his partner being hugged by a stranger. He assumes this means she is having an affair (though he should have wondered why she was so open about it when near enough to their house). He storms out after she gets back, and in the ensuing row on the street steps into the road as a car is going past, running him over - with the driver being the stranger from earlier, who then comforts his now distraught girlfriend - via the hug seen earlier. And all this for a music track that is seemingly about a report of sexual abuse by a girl against a man (the 'match that burned a thousand trees').

* ''Film/LaJetee'': The protagonist's anchor to the past is his hazy childhood memory of seeing the beautiful woman at the airport, and then seeing a man die. Eventually, when trying to flee the scientists, he travels back to the past and to that moment—and gets shot by the jailer. So what he saw as a child was himself getting killed, after having fulfilled his mission.
** Remake ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'' has the same scene with a twist: he is shot by airport security [[YouCantFightFate trying to prevent the apocalypse that made him time travel in the first place]].

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10987368/1/Always-a-Ranger Always a Ranger]]''- an AU of [[Recap/PowerRangersOperationOverdriveS1E20OnceARangerPart1 the confrontation with Thrax]] where he attacked [[Series/PowerRangersSPD the SPD B-Squad]] rather than the Operation Overdrive team- features [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Jen Scott]] as part of the team of past Rangers recruited to replace the depowered Rangers. When they question how she was recruited from the past if she came from the year 3000, Jen reveals that after her last meeting with Wes, she checked historical records and realised that ''she'' was meant to become Wes's wife all along, prompting her to return to 2004 on a full-time basis.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10987368/1/Always-a-Ranger Always a Ranger]]''- an AU of [[Recap/PowerRangersOperationOverdriveS1E20OnceARangerPart1 the confrontation with Thrax]] where he attacked [[Series/PowerRangersSPD the SPD B-Squad]] rather than the Operation Overdrive team- features Jen Scott (''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'') as part of the team of past Rangers recruited to replace the depowered Rangers. When they question how she was recruited from the past if she came from the year 3000, Jen reveals that after her last meeting with Wes, she checked historical records and realised that ''she'' was meant to become Wes's wife all along, prompting her to return to 2004 on a full-time basis.

** Played with in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', where Marty goes back in time and introduces 1985 concepts to 1955, but the movie implies that [[CloseEnoughTimeline he only changes the source of the original idea without majorly altering their progression into the modern day]]. He didn't invent skateboards but he introduced skateboarding to Hill Valley earlier than would have caught on naturally, and he didn't write "Johnny B. Goode", but hearing his guitar solo inspired Music/ChuckBerry over the phone. Since these things don't actually ''change'' the future, it looks like they were always that way. His comment also inspires the busboy Goldie Wilson to go into politics, although Wilson was already mayor in the original timeline, meaning he would have found inspiration elsewhere.

* Used extensively in ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' 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 through all the missions and trouble she already went through 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.

** Strangely, the previous book in the series, ''The Lost Colony'', completely averts this trope in favor of shooting hoops with the TimeyWimeyBall. Artemis manages to [[spoiler:bring multiple people BackFromTheDead]] by firing a stun-gun into the recent past.

* Inverted in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/33339538/chapters/82797070 So you time travel to the future and your classmate gets punched...]]'': the akuma Time-Turner sends Miss Bustier and most of her class twenty years into the future, aside from Chloe and Marinette (the latter having transferred to another class one month prior). This results in them learning how [[LiarRevealed Lila deceived them all]]... only the revelation comes far too late. All of the critical events that led to most of the class suffering LaserGuidedKarma have already happened; they just haven't been hit by the fallout yet. As a result, the people explaining this to them in the future are able to detail just what's in store for them all, knowing that even when they go back to the present, they won't be able to prevent what's coming.

* ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'': Since this work deals heavily in themes of fate, predestination, and free will, this trope comes up a lot. [[spoiler:Perhaps the biggest example is when Caeden begs El for the chance to go back in time and prevent Davian's fated death, only to realize at the absolute last moment that it was Caeden himself, shapeshifted to look like Davian, who was fated to die from the beginning.]]
* ''Literature/JoelSuzuki'': In ''Fable of the Fatewave'', Joel and Felicity go back to the time of the Fourfoot War in order to prevent Blackspore from [[spoiler:bringing Marshall Byle over to help with the war in order to save all the people Marshall killed]]. They overshoot their destination and end up shortly before the start of the war. Joel's presence ends up causing the war - Chief Fourfoot falls in love with him and [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe orders him to marry him]], and Joel refuses. Island law allows someone from outside a chief's village to refuse marriage to a chief, and Fourfoot can't change that law without the agreement of the other three village chiefs, so he declares was on the other three villages in order to become sole chief so he can force whomever he wants to marry him. Later, Joel and Felicity manage to talk Blackspore out of [[spoiler:bringing Marshall over]], but just as the timeline is starting to change, Thornleaf knocks out Joel, Felicity, and Blackspore and finishes the incantation himself because he doesn't believe in messing with the timeline.

--> '''Temporal Investigator Dulmur:''' Captain, why did you take the Defiant back in time?\\

* ''TabletopGame/ContinuumRoleplayingInTheYet'': It's an ironclad article of Spanner faith that there is only one universe -- including one past and one future. A player will meet fellow spanners who've been affected by changes that are in the player's Yet, and you'd better do them or risk Frag.

--> [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9r2EYy3rxU By trying to change the past, I have actually caused it to happen!]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' ending has this trope, with [[spoiler:Ultimecia giving her sorceress powers to Edea in the past and Squall suggesting the [=SeeD=] idea at the same moment, setting up the organization that Squall is raised by.]]
* ''VideoGame/TimeSplittersFuturePerfect'' is an example of this situation. Sergeant Cortez does, at least once per time period, meet a future version of himself that saves him, then when he reaches the period the future version is from, he then goes back to save his past self, fulfilling the time loop. EX: in the stage "What Lies Below", Cortez is saved by himself from the future, then has to defend his future self from zombies while the future self kills ghosts. Shortly afterward he wants to follow his future self, but his future self tells him "but where would you be if I hadn't shown up?". Future and Past Cortez part, then Past Cortez finds the ghost gun that Future Cortez found, steps into a wormhole, and ends back up where he was before, becoming Future Cortez. Now Future Cortez (who is controlled by the player) must kill ghosts while past Cortez shoots the zombies. When past Cortez asks to stay in a team, future Cortez tells him exactly what he heard from himself at this point. "Where would you be if I hadn't shown up?". The two part, and Cortez continues.
** This does create an odd situation however in the "Scotland the Brave" stage, where Cortez finds a locked door, and his future self gives him a key, telling him to pass it on when he's done. When he reaches this point, he finds his past self, and he gives him the key, and tells him to pass it on when he's done, then leaves. The question remains however: where did the key come from in the first place if Cortez was passing it between time periods but never stopped to find it?
** This is explained in the final boss fight, which actually also reveals this trope was being subverted the whole time. Halfway through the fight Cortez realizes that he's outgunned and decides to go back in time and aid his past self to defeat the boss. This would be fine except that "future Cortez" never showed up to help you defeat the boss in the first place. Anya's talking of "creating a time loop" suggests that every prior instance of "looping" was caused by an alternate Cortez [[ForWantOfANail doing something significantly different]] (like say, deciding to make his AlternateSelf's job easier by passing a key he found.) and only now is the player-controlled Cortez getting to be the "Starter", which also conveniently means the Player doesn't have to fight the FinalBoss twice ("Past" Cortez isn't seen after the battle, because he presumably went back to help ''his'' past self battle Crow).
*** The game actually features two completely different forms of time travel, and it is implied that use of the first tore the universe a new one enabling the second.
* In ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin'', the Prince travels to the Island of Time in hopes of preventing the Sands of Time, the source of all his misfortunes, from ever being created. He defeats the Empress of Time, [[spoiler:only to discover that she ''is'' the sands in corporeal form, and that the events that led him here were of his own making.]] The second half of the game is about the Prince deciding to ScrewDestiny and subvert this.
* In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', it's revealed that the reason [[TheDon Giovanni]] never returned to [[TheRemnant the revived Team Rocket]] is that at around the same time you were fighting [[BigBad Archer]], your future self was sent back in time by Celebi and stopped Giovanni before he could rejoin them, [[RetiredMonster ensuring he stayed retired]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' features this [[spoiler:when you try to rescue the princess - and then see that she was running away from you instead...]]
* A DoubleSubversion occurs at the very end of ''VideoGame/{{Futurama}}: The Game''. Farnsworth learns from his own crew-from-the-future that Mom's imminent purchase of Planet Express will lead to her taking over the Universe, and says the deal's off. Mom tells him that it is destined to occur anyway, because "No one can alter the continuum of time!" Farnsworth replies "Oh yeah? Watch me!" and tears up the contract. Then Mom sweetens the deal by offering him a hat… the very same hat he had entered the room wearing at the beginning of the game.

* ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'' seems to avert this; when the past is changed, it sends a measurable 'ripple effect' back up the time stream, which can be detected and is used to alert time agents to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. However, it's theorized that there are some changes to the timeline that are actually ''supposed'' to happen, which don't produce these ripples and thus can't be detected and averted. These include your attempts to ''correct'' the other changes, which is why the alternate universe counterparts of your TimePolice organization aren't ever seen to try and stop you. At least, except when they ''physically catch you'' wandering around their base.
* A subversion of this happens in the first installment of ''VideoGame/{{Spellforce}}''. The BigBad spends the whole game trying to get back in time to alter certain events in his favor. Once he gets back in time, it is revealed he is actually a younger version of [[spoiler:Rohen]]. He then spends decades in the past, [[spoiler:has a HeelRealization]] and then tries to undo the actions of an even earlier version of himself, ultimately setting in motion the events at the start of the game. What makes this a subversion is that the older version actually knows about the loop and actively maintains it to ensure his younger version [[spoiler:performs a HeelFaceTurn]]
* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'', where the titular duo are stonewalled because they'd caused a mouse child to lose a treasured toy - so they travel back to the past to take the toy from him only to return it in the present.
* In ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'', the final dimension is set on Cortex's island just before the events of the original ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'', with Cortex trying to stop his past self from creating Crash... Only for his defeat to inspire his past self to turn Crash into his General, and Crash himself breaking something very important which made sure that he became the bandicoot he is today. Coco lampshades this with a simple, "Explains a lot," once she sees this happen.

* In ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': [[spoiler:Akane]] sets up such a time loop to ensure her survival. [[spoiler:Her future self]], posing as a fellow victim of the mysterious kidnapper who set up the second Nonary game, guides her childhood friend Junpei in a way that he can psychically contact her and help her out of the room that she is still trapped in.

* All the TimeTravel in ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' eventually resolves itself into this.

* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Bun-Bun's whole adventure in Timeless Space was based off this trope. As [[http://ads.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060201 Uncle Time put it]], "Life's ''so'' much funner with the paradox rules turned off."

* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', [[spoiler:Chuck Goodrich]] is a time traveler from the future who comes to avoid TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt play with this tropes. it's not like you ''can't'' change the past...you can change ''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption how]]'' it will be TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
** ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' does use [[TemporalMutability Branching Timelines]], it's just that [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Cumberland Is The Center Of The Universe]] and [[EverythingTryingtoKillYou everything in the universe is trying to kill us]]. A more accurate description of the various time traveling adventures of [[spoiler:Chuck Goodrich]] is that each disaster in itself acts to prevent all the other disasters that are waiting.
*** As explained by one character in a particularly nasty future, the branching timelines are the reason you can't technically change the past. See, since a future-you didn't come back in time to the present when you were taking TheSlowPath to the current future, you didn't do that, so if you go back in time, you create an alternate past where you did, and the versions of your friends and family in your current future-present will never see you again, and also their lives still suck.
* In ''Webcomic/AmericanBarbarian'', [[http://www.ambarb.com/?p=429 Rick's attempt to go back results in his appearing as a character already seen.]]

* Present in [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-2000]], the Foundation's equivalent of a "reset button," built to reverse the effects of end-of-the-world scenarios by rebuilding humanity from scratch. Not only has the reset been used an unknown number of times, attempts to change human history by resetting the world further back in the past than 20 years are implied to have caused ''both'' world wars.
--> '''HMCL Note:''' No further proposals for behavioral or cultural modification will be accepted at this time. Previous attempts to ameliorate violent and sociopathic tendencies in humanity as a whole [[HumansareBastards have already been implemented and deemed successful]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TimeWarpTrio'' episode "The High and the Flighty", this trope ends up being TheReveal. After the trio's [[KidFromTheFuture great-granddaughters]] listen to the final DistressCall of UsefulNotes/AmeliaEarhart where she addresses a mysterious third party, the girls go on a rescue mission spearheaded by Freddi to find her supposed killer. After catching the ImmoralJournalist attempting to stow away on her plane before takeoff, the girls return to the future only to find that the past went unchanged. A disheartened Freddi takes it upon herself to find out the truth and warps back to 1937 onto her plane, only for Amelia to catch her and repeat the lines in her distress call from the start shortly before the crash and Freddi warping back.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode "Paraducks", Gosalyn warns Darkwing not to interfere into the past when they went back in time to his childhood. At first he doesn't and returns to the present, only to find that S.H.U.S.H. doesn't exist, the King, a two bit thug from Darkwing's childhood has taken over St. Canard and he serves as the King's cowardly lackey, never became Darkwing Duck. They go back and time and shut down the King for good and give little Drakey Mallard (Darkwing) the courage he needed.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' special "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker": Timmy and 21st-century Cosmo were the ones responsible for [[spoiler:making Crocker lose his fairy godparents ''and'' giving him the opportunity to partially get around the ensuing mass mindwipe thus causing his obsession with fairies]], which also indirectly led to his own birth due to [[spoiler:the disappointed scientists at Crocker's presentation in the '80s [[RuleOfFunny investing in Dinkleburg's parachute pants]] and causing him to break up with Timmy's mom, thereby getting his parents together.]]
** Of course, in the original timeline, 1970s-era Cosmo would have exposed himself and Wanda as fairies due to his own stupidity. In addition, the original timeline Crocker did not have a functional scanner nor build one. Here, Crocker stole the one Timmy got from AJ before putting Cosmo's hair and having an effective fairy detecter, though not any more success.
** This is also "confirmed" by being tied to a real-life history example, as Jorgen warns Timmy he is not allowed to interfere with March 1972 ever again after the episode's events, but suggests he is free to interfere with the rest of the year as much as he wants, as long as it does not hurt "President [=McGovern=]". In real life, Sen. George [=McGovern=] lost that year's presidential election in one of the most notorious landslides in election history, suggesting this is Timmy's doing as well.
** Later episodes zigzag this example, by featuring a completely different version of Crocker's fairy godfamily, his childhood behavior, and how he loses them, as the show increasingly adopted [[NegativeContinuity negative continuity]].

* In the season 2 episode "It's About Time" of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Twilight Sparkle is visited by her future self (from a week later, looking entirely worn) and told "whatever you do, don't..." with the sentence being cut off. Past Twilight then spends the whole week worrying about and trying to prevent whatever happens during the next week, with each incident causing her to gain the looks of Future Twilight, indicating she hasn't changed the future at all. [[spoiler:She only then learns later that nothing actually happens. So she goes back into the past to tell her past self "Whatever you do, don't... worry about the future" only to end up being pulled back into the future right where it cut off for Past Twilight, setting the events into motion for the whole episode.]]
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. After discovering that they're all on prehistoric Earth, Dinobot's mind becomes consumed with the question of whether he actually has free will, or whether this trope is in effect and all of his actions in the past are predetermined. His question is answered when he spies on Megatron and sees him experimenting with altering the future by blasting a mountain and checking an image of the future version of the mountain. When the image changes before their eyes to show the chunk missing, Dinobot realizes that the future can indeed be changed. Ironically, the knowledge that he is indeed free to make his own choices causes him to feel like he has no choice but to invoke the trope ''anyway'', because Megatron wants to change the future for the ''worse'' and he's the only one close enough to stop him before it's too late, [[HeroicSacrifice even if it costs him his own life]].
-->'''Dinobot:''' The question that once haunted my being has been answered: the future is not fixed, and my choices are my own. And yet... how ironic, for I now find that I have no choice at all! ''[transforms to robot mode]'' I am a warrior... Let the battle be joined....
** Played with again in the finale. [[spoiler:Dinobot II, being influenced by the original Dinobot's spirit]] sends the Maximals information concerning an Autobot shuttle docked in the Ark. Blackarachnia points out that the historical records never mentioned that the Autobots had a shuttle. Rhinox then exclaims that history is still being made, and uses the shuttle to save the day and take everyone home, which explains why the Autobots supposedly never had it.
* ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha'': in ''Woulda Coulda Hasbeena'', Señor Hasbeena uses a time portal to go back to 1972 and prevent a flash of light that briefly blinded him and killed his career as a professional luchador. Ricochet, Buena Girl, and Flea try to stop him because his time travel is altering the present and, in the ensuing fight, present-day Señor Hasbeena uses a signature move that creates the very flash of light that ruined him in the past.

* A ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'' series had Doctor Doom lure the Daywalker to his castle, where Doom then proposed Blade with going back in time and saving his mother from a vampire attack. Blade asked him why he should do it, and Doom replies with "Because I've already seen you do it in the past." Doom is nice enough to give him a serum which would suppress his bloodthirst though.

* At the end of ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' volume 8, the title character is blasted into the 1800's, in spite of his long-held belief that time travel is impossible (due to the speed at which planets are constantly moving). He spends the first few years terrified of changing things and causing a paradox, but when pushed to act he settles on this trope.
-->"Don't do ''anything.'' Except for what you [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble were always will have done]]. It's ''not'' a paradox if I was ''already'' part of the past."

* Subverted in the crossover ComicBook/{{Spawn}} / ComicBook/{{Wildcats|WildStorm}}, where future versions of Grifter and Zealot (the former being the original's future self but the latter being a new Zealot) are sent into the past to slay Spawn to prevent him becoming a ruthless dictator known as the Ipsissimus. When they fail to kill him, the present Wildcats and Spawn agree to go with them into the future to defeat the Ipsissimus, but it turns out this was part of a predestination paradox, as the Ipsissimus uses the opportunity to give Spawn the medallion that corrupted him and caused him to turn evil to begin with. When back to the present, the influence stats, and Spawn starts EvilGloating... until the future Wildcats realize their mistake and make a last attempt to modify a minor action in the past. This causes Spawn to recognize future Zealot as an adult version of his widow's daughter Cyan, come back to his senses and hand the medallion to her, thus preventing the future.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10987368/1/Always-a-Ranger Always a Ranger]]''- an AU of [[Recap/PowerRangersOperationOverdriveS1E20OnceARangerPart1 the confrontation with Thrax]] where he attacked [[Series/PowerRangersSPD the SPD B-Squad]] rather than the Operation Overdrive team- features Jen Scott (''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'') as part of the team of past Rangers recruited to replace the depowered Rangers. When they question how she was recruited from the past if she came from the year 3000, Jen reveals that after her last meeting with Wes, she checked historical records and realised that ''she'' was meant to become Wes's wife all along, prompting her to return to 2004 on a full-time basis.
* In the ''Series/Charmed1998'' fanfic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3562774/1/Once-and-Future-Witches Once and Future Witches]]", an attack on Leo and Wyatt causes the Charmed Ones of 2007 (just after the series finale) to go back to early season two and then all six of them go back to 1983. Once in that time, they are able to identify their foe as a demonic presence that exists outside of time and whose Darklighter agent had already killed Lynn, who Prue remembers as their childhood babysitter but was actually their first Whitelighter. However, since the Halliwells were travelling in time when Lynne was killed, Grams confirms that this means history hasn’t been changed yet and Leo was always going to be the sisters’ Whitelighter.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13497211/50/Crazy-Trouble-With-Love-Part-9 Female Queens and Marco]]'' centers around [[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil Marco Diaz]] time-traveling throughout Mewni history and interacting with its previous queens. When he meets Queen Solaria, Marco tries to avert the FantasticRacism in present day Mewni by showing Solaria that peace and diplomacy is a better alternative to fighting, and appears to succeed to a degree... until a case of NotWhatItLooksLike and NeverFoundTheBody[[note]]a monster asks Marco for help in opening a jar of starwberry jam. Just as Marco succeeds, he involuntarily time travels, leaving behind his hoodie with strawberry jam all over it. Queen Solaria sees the hoodie and the jam, mistakes it for blood, and comes to the conclusion that the mosnter killed Marco[[/note]] has Solaria believing that Marco is dead, leading to her hatred of monsters not only returning, but ''increasing'' and ensuring that Mewni's hatred towards monsters will persist to the present day.

[[folder:Film]]
%%* ''Film/TwelveMonkeys''
* ''Film/AliceThroughTheLookingGlass'' carries the message that while changing the past in Underland is impossible, you might be able to learn from it. Alice discovers this the hard way when she tries to [[spoiler:prevent the childhood accident that caused the Red Queen's giant deformed head. Originally Iracebeth hit her head on a grandfather clock that was being carried across the street, but when Alice manages to knock the clock out of the way young Iracebeth ends up tripping and smacking her head on a stone ledge anyway.]]

* ''Bill and Ted''

* ''Film/TheFinalCountdown'': Martin Sheen is sent on a mission by the mysterious billionaire he's never met. The aircraft carrier is sent back in time and almost prevents the attack on Pearl Harbor and loses one of their officers. When the ship returns to the present [[spoiler:Sheen finds out that the mysterious billionaire is that officer, made wealthy by 30 years of fore-knowledge]].

* ''Literature/ThereWillBeTime'' by Creator/PoulAnderson. A substantial number of humans have had the innate ability to TimeTravel since before recorded history (possibly because it was inserted into the genome by future travelers). So little of human history is known exactly, and the book's scope is so great (from Jesus' crucifixion to a far-future [[AfterTheEnd postapocalyptic]] revival of civilization--at ''least'') that the inability to change the past comes up only rarely--but the protagonist is nearly broken [[spoiler:when his Byzantine wife dies of an illness because other travellers have abducted him to the future]].
** It is established fairly early in the story that it is impossible to change anything that the hero knows about what will happen. Every attempt he makes to save his father (who died in WW-II) is prevented in some way.
* Eoin Colfer's ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' Time Paradox [[spoiler:The matter is discussed before they actually TimeTravel and Artemis presumes that whatever happened in the past cannot be changed. It turns out he's right. It also lets a huge variety of crazy actions take place.]]
** Strangely, the previous book in the series, ''The Lost Colony'', completely averts this trope in favor of shooting hoops with the TimeyWimeyBall. Artemis manages to [[spoiler:bring multiple people BackFromTheDead]] by firing a stun-gun into the recent past.
%%* Diana Gabaldon's ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'' series runs into this a lot.

* In ''[[Literature/BlackMaria Aunt Maria]]'', by Creator/DianaWynneJones, the main characters [[TimeTravel go back in time]] [[spoiler:in the form of cats to stop Anthony from being imprisoned underground. He ends up tripping over them and falling into the trap.]]
** Technically [[spoiler:they were only trying to figure out where he'd been buried. The protagonist's mother happened to be a bit stupid though, and tried to save him.]]

* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern''

* In ''Literature/{{Jago}}'', one of the protagonists is temporarily transported to the past by the RealityWarper power of the villain, Jago, and rushes out a brief and unintentionally cryptic warning about Jago before being transported away again. The main effect of the warning is that it is overheard by a Jago ancestor in that time period, planting seeds of paranoia that warp the Jago family's path and result in the present-day Jago being the person he is.
* Creator/TimPowers [[PlayingWithATrope plays with this trope]] a lot in ''Literature/TheAnubisGates''. The [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] protagonist comes to believe that YouCantFightFate, then learns that it's not that simple, since historians don't know all the details.
** He encounters the brand-new original manuscript of a poem he'd studied in his own century, and wonders how it would pick up the stains he'd seen on it in his own time. A poet he recently met then walks in carrying some food, puts it down, and picks up the manuscript with his greasy hands to look it over.
** He encounters a 17th century book with an inscription in it that shakes him up. He later travels accidentally to that century, and on encountering the then-new book, writes the pig-Latin inscription addressed to himself that he would read in the future.

* Creator/ConnieWillis:
** ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog'' involves {{time travel}}ing historians (which first appeared in her ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'') who spend a lot of effort to repair the "incongruity" caused when one of them inadvertently brings a cat forward from [[UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria Victorian England]] (they're extinct in 2057). This involves trying to make sure that the cat's owner winds up with the "Mr. C" that her diary specifies after they've accidentally introduced her to a different man. [[spoiler:It turns out that all perceived incongruities are the continuum's self-correcting system.]]
** ''Literature/{{Blackout}}'' and ''All Clear'' have a similar example. Some historians go back to WWII era, then find that they can't get home. They agonize over every little thing they do, worried that the slightest change might cause the Germans to win the war. [[spoiler:It turns out that the things they did, the people they saved, and so on, were exactly the tipping points to let the Allies win the war. Their future, in which the Third Reich fell, predicates on them getting stuck in the past and doing the things they're convinced will ruin everything]].
* TimeTravel in the ''Literature/SagaOfTheExiles'' novels works this way. Of course, since TimeTravel ''must'' take you back six ''million'' years (and then only works in one spot in France), it's rather difficult to know exactly what the {{time travel}}ers already did.

* Minor example in ''[[Literature/YoungWizards So You Want To Be A Wizard]]'' by Creator/DianeDuane: Nita and Kit are stopped for a moment on their way to a world gate by a loud bang on the other side of a door they are about to open. It turns out at the end of the book [[spoiler:that it was Nita herself, coming back from the future a little earlier than planned and trying to avoid meeting their younger selves]].
* This was true in the novel ''Literature/TheTimeTravelersWife'' by Audrey Niffenegger. The main character was constantly going into both the past and future, but everything was pre-set. Everything he did when he went into the past, he had "already done", and once something happened, he could never change it; in situations where he already knew what was going to happen, he had to act in the way he had already acted, he didn't have any choice.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's works:
** The short story "The Red Queen's Race" has a character who tries to ''make'' this trope happen. [[spoiler:He was asked to translate several modern books on physics into ancient Greek, with the work being beamed back into humanity's past. History fails to change because the translator was very careful to leave out most of the advanced material, only including information which would account for discoveries and advances already present in our own time line.]]
** Inverted in ''Literature/TheEndOfEternity''. Despite changing history themselves all the time, the Eternals are certain that the existence of their organization is guaranteed by this trope--how can they eliminate their own existence? The exception, an Eternal who is certain that time loops are intrinsically unstable, turns out to be correct, and Eternity eliminates itself.
* ''Unborn Tomorrow'', a short story by Creator/MackReynolds. An EccentricMillionaire wants a private eye to locate a time traveler from the future and get the secret of eternal life. He believes such time travelers would go to the {{Oktoberfest}}, where everyone would be too drunk to notice anything strange about them. The private eye's secretary is surprised when her boss curtly turns down this chance to get drunk on someone else's money. The private eye explains that he's already taken the assignment three times, and each time the time travelers sent him back to this point in the time line, with a massive hangover from drinking too much German beer. There's no way he's getting another hangover piled on top of the previous three, not for any amount of money!
* ''Literature/TheSkull'' by Creator/PhilipKDick. An assassin is sent back in time to kill the founder of a subversive religion before he gives a famous speech, only to realize that the Founder is himself -- the 'miracle' that inspired the religion's creation was him appearing after he'd been killed (he'd arrived at the wrong point in time) thus 'coming back from the dead'. The RousingSpeech supposedly given by the Founder never actually happened, but was a result of history being embellished after his death. [[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30255/30255-h/30255-h.htm All he said]] was:
--> "I have an odd paradox for you. Those who take lives will lose their own. Those who kill, will die. But he who gives his own life away will live again!"
* Happens quite a lot in ''Literature/CountAndCountess'', in which the two eponymous characters exchange letters with each other despite living more than a hundred years apart. Notably, Elizabeth, living in the 1500s, knows that her ancestor Matyas Hunyadi (in the 1400s) held the throne of Hungary for a very long time. In an attempt to save Vlad Dracula's life, she warns him not to try to make a grab for the throne, or he will probably be killed. As a result, Vlad stays as far away from Hunyadi as possible. [[spoiler:Which gives Hunyadi plenty of time to rouse the Black Forces against Vlad and stop him in his tracks.]]
%%* Happens at the very end of ''Literature/TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'' books.
* Creator/StanislawLem pumped this to the max by time travellers creating the whole world from the physical constants up. What started as an attempt to make things better for everyone ended with our reality because of bureaucracy, competition, attempts of personal gain, human mistakes etc.
* In ''Literature/InvadersOfTheRokujyouma,'' Koutarou and Clan are accidentally displaced in time to Ancient Forthorthe when Clan attacks Koutarou for assisting [[TheRival her rival]], [[AlienPrincess Princess Theiamillis of the Forthorthian Galactic Empire]]. There, they become involved in the foundational myth of Forthorthe, with Koutarou wearing a suit of powered armor borrowed from Theia. Clan eventually realizes, after curing a then-incurable disease with advanced technology, that the historical story was only possible through their intervention, with many of the fantastical elements of the myth supplied by Koutarou's powered armor.

* In the second ''[[Literature/{{Animorphs}} Megamorphs]]'' book, the Animorphs go back to the time of the dinosaurs. While there, they find two groups of aliens at war with one another, the Mercora and the Nesk, and take the Mercora's side. Meanwhile, they're also trying to get back to their own time period, which will apparently require a nuclear explosion, and so they steal a nuke from the Nesk. This causes the Nesk to leave the planet angrily, but not before diverting the path of a comet that was originally going to narrowly miss the Earth so that it crashes into it instead. Most of the Animorphs want to use the nuke to destroy the comet and save the Mercora, but Tobias has Ax sabotage the nuke in a way so that the Mercora won't realize it's a dud until it's too late, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous-Paleogene_extinction_event having realized that the evolution of mammalian life as they now it depends on that comet striking.]]

* Happens twice in ''The Silent Age'': Near the end of the game the protagonist goes back to the day before the time machine pilot is due to bring the killer virus from the future only for it to become clear that his attempt ends up sabotaging the original one by accidentally shooting the scientist who tried to stop the launch, later he goes to the future to stop the time machine pilot from coming back so he doesn't cause an epidemic, only to find out the pilot doesn't make it back and the protagonist is the one who causes the outbreak. Subverted in the end when he manages to stop the outbreak anyway.

* In ''Literature/InvadersOfTheRokujyouma,'' Koutarou and Clan are accidentally displaced in time to Ancient Forthorthe when Clan attacks Koutarou for assisting [[TheRival her rival, [[AlienPrincess Princess Theiamillis of the Forthorthian Galactic Empire]]]]. There, they become involved in the foundational myth of Forthorthe, with Koutarou wearing a suit of powered armor borrowed from Theia. Clan eventually realizes, after curing a then-incurable disease with advanced technology, that the historical story was only possible through their intervention, with many of the fantastical elements of the myth supplied by Koutarou's powered armor.
** In fact, they were originally thrown out of time and encountered the [[CuteGoddess goddess of the setting]], who was inspired to create the entire universe based on [[MayflyDecemberRomance learning about Koutarou]].

* In ''Literature/InvadersOfTheRokujyouma,'' Koutarou and Clan are accidentally displaced in time to Ancient Forthorthe when Clan attacks Koutarou for assisting [[TheRival her rival, Princess Theiamillis of the Forthorian Galactic Empire]]. There, they become involved in the foundational myth of Forthorthe, with Koutarou wearing a suit of powered armor borrowed from Theia. Clan eventually realizes, after curing a then-incurable disease with advanced technology, that the historical story was only possible through their intervention, and the fantastical elements greatly aided by Koutarou's powered armor.
** In fact, they were originally thrown out of time and encountered the goddess of the setting, who was inspired to create the entire universe based on [[MayflyDecemberRomance learning about Koutarou]].

* After the film ''Film/{{Hobgoblins}}'' was shown on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', Tom Servo tried to go back in time to stop the movie from being made by hunting down the director and... kicking him in the shin. Upon Tom's return to his present, Crow pulls up an article where the director claimed that his inspiration for ''Hobgoblins'' was that time when a squat red robot ran up to him out of the blue and kicked him in the shin...

* The only time-travel arc on ''Series/BabylonFive'' 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 (having received a message from Valen before the journey) 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.]] The StableTimeLoop is fully completed, so to speak, by the fact that [[spoiler:when Valen dies, he eventually gets reincarnated as Sinclair.]]

** In the episode "Tribunal", history professor and Holocaust scholar Aaron Zgierski is taken back to Auschwitz by time-traveler Nicholas Prentice (who turns out to be Zgierski's own great-grandson). While there, they [[TimeTravelEscape rescue Aaron's "older" sister]] (who is only eight at the time) by bringing her into the future to live out her life free of Nazi oppression. History recorded Aaron's sister as dying at Auschwitz after being "dragged away" by a couple of guards, who were actually Zgierski and Prentice in disguise.
** In "Gettysburg", Prentice wants to ''change'' the past by convincing a Civil War buff (who has pro-Confederate views) of the wrongness of his convictions by taking him and his friend to just before the Battle of Gettysburg. Originally, the buff was going to assassinate a black President in his own future. Instead, the buff takes this opportunity to try to alter the course of the battle in the Confederate favor. He accidentally uses Prentice's time machine (shaped as an old-fashioned camera) to transport a Confederate general through time. His attempts at preventing the (from his viewpoint) catastrophe result in him getting shot for cowardice. Prentice takes the friend back to his time, and the latter finds an old newspaper with the picture of his dead friend. MeanwhileInTheFuture the transported Confederate general appears at the moment of the original assassination, and he ends up being the presidential assassin (he was actually aiming for a man dressed as UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, who was standing next to the president).
** "Time To Time" subverts this when a new recruit into the temporal agency goes back in time and prevents her father's death due to eco-terrorists' bomb going off prematurely. This results in another member of the agency suddenly vanishing. His colleagues figured out that, without her father to tamper with the bomb, it went off as planned and killed a lot of innocent people, including an ancestor of the temporal agent who disappeared. Reluctantly, the girl has to let her father sacrifice himself. However, she does alter her mother's fate somewhat by giving her a coping mechanism (in her timeline, her mother's a wreck; in the altered one, she is an accomplished artist).
** Another episode (not part of the arc) involves a scientist building a time machine and traveling several days into the future, where he sees his wife bleeding out from a gunshot wound in their living room. Distraught, he goes back and does his best to prevent this from happening. Not only does he sound crazy to everyone around him (including his wife), but his time travel has also unhinged him, slowly driving him crazy for real, until he accidentally shoots his wife with the gun he got to ''save'' her from being shot. The episode then promptly subverts this by having him go back to the day he first met his wife and killing his younger self before the event, himself vanishing due to the GrandfatherParadox. Then we're shown his future wife, who appears to be depressed and preparing to commit suicide (it's implied that meeting him would have helped get through the depression).

* The first TimeTravel episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' ("1969") can be perceived as following this logic, but none of the subsequent TimeTravel episodes in the Franchise/StargateVerse can -- they all involve alternate timelines instead.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Assignment Earth" ends with the reveal that the Enterprise's historical records show that a malfunctioning nuclear platform exploded just as it did in the episode, indicating that Gary Seven's mission (complete with Kirk and Spock's interference therewith) was part of their existing timeline.

* Conspicuously averted in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Trials and Tribble-ations":

'''Dulmur:''': A time loop. That you were meant to go back into the past?\\

'''Lucsly:''': We hate those.

*** Subverted in the second season episode, "Back There", where a young engineer has a discussion with his fellow rich friends about this topic. He then finds himself back in time to the night of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He desperately tries to warn everyone that Lincoln will be assassinated, but he's brushed off as drunk and a man named Wellington (who late turns out to be John Wilkes Booth) takes him in. While in his care Wellington drugs him and goes to assassinate Lincoln. When the engineer wakes up, the president is shot mere moments later and he discovers the man who drugged him was in fact John Wilkes Booth. When he goes back to his original timeline, he discovers he did actually change one thing. The police officer who believed him and tried to save the president got promoted to chief of police then a councilman and later became a millionaire allowing his descendant (who in the original timeline was an attendant at club the engineer was a part of) to inherit his fortune.
*** Played straight in "No Time Like The Past" where after a scientist fails several times to change history, he decides to go back to a time where there were no issues, 1888. Upon realizing there will be a fire at the school so he tries to stop it, but when a horse and buggy swerves to avoid hitting him, it launches a lantern which hits the school causing the aforementioned fire.

* The Music/BlackSabbath song "Iron Man". [[note]]No relation to the Creator/MarvelComics [[Comicbook/IronMan character of the same name]], although the song was featured in the [[Film/IronMan live-action film]] and has been {{RetCon}}ned as being the character's namesake.[[/note]] A guy goes forward in time and winds up AfterTheEnd, where the world has been destroyed by some weird metallic monstrosity. He tries to come back and change it, but the change turns him ''into'' the weird metallic monstrosity and he is [[CassandraTruth mocked and ridiculed]] by society. So he [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds destroys the world.]]

* The climax of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. Harry and Hermione (Ron is in the Hospital Wing with a broken leg) go to the past to save Buckbeak and Sirius, but the method of time travel used has this trope in full force, plus NeverShallTheSelvesMeet. [[spoiler:Harry breaks the NeverShallTheSelvesMeet rule to save himself from a Dementor, but avoids consequences because his past self barely saw him and thought it was his father, who he [[StrongFamilyResemblance strongly resembles]]. He also later explains his first perfect Patronus as knowing that he ''could'' do it because he'd already done it from his past self's perspective (once he figured out who it was he saw). They manage to save Buckbeak despite supposedly hearing him be executed ([[TrickedOutTime the executioner actually realized he was missing and swung at a fencepost in frustration]]), and use him to get Sirius to safety after he's imprisoned in the castle.]]

* In Creator/RobinJarvis' ''The Woven Path'', the spirit of an American airman has waited decades for his chance to return to World War II-era London and prevent the deaths of his loved ones (and himself). When [[TheWeirdSisters the Fates]] finally give him this opportunity, he is outraged when things turn out almost exactly as they did before in spite of his efforts. They explain to him that they knew all along that [[TitleDrop his path was already woven]] [[YouCantFightFate and could not be changed]]; they just [[ShaggyDogStory failed to tell him that in the first place]].