History PlayingWith / HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct

** Alternatively, [[DefusingTheTykeBomb you can get young Hitler into art school]], but another German nationalist simply rises in his place and still launches a war. On the other hand, this nationalist isn't genocidally racist against Jews and Slavs, and so him winning isn't ''that'' terrible.
** You could go back in time to the Paris Peace Conference and make a more lenient version of the Treaty of Versailles. But World War II happens ten years later under a communist dictator.

** The TimePolice spells out to the potential time traveler that historically, assassinations have caused more harm than good, citing the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and Abraham Lincoln as examples of why murdering one person isn't a solution to the problems of the world, and the consequences can spiral out of control.

** Many of the failed attempts on Hitler's life in real life where actually thwarted by time traveling neo-nazis.

** However, that allows UsefulNotes/JosefStalin's power to run unchecked, and he invades the now-peaceful Europe [[DirtyCommunists with no less brutality than Hitler would]].

** Hitler's early death, like everything else in history, has both positives and negative consequences. There may never be a World War II or Holocaust, but South Africa and British India could collapse into civil war.

** The series [[YouCantFightFate has a strict no changing history rule]].

* '''Played for Drama'''

** A Jewish time traveler keeps trying and fails to kill Hitler before he's done anything wrong, which fuels his anti-semitism [[StableTimeLoop and eventually motivates him to become the genocidal dictator we all know]]. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Upon realizing they inadvertently caused Hitler's rise to power and genocidal biogtry]], [[DrivenToSuicide the Jewish time traveler kills themselves]].

** Hitler finds out about being unable to be killed without creating something even worse, and believing that he has ProphecyArmor for his grand destiny to TakeOverTheWorld and destroy all lesser humans he becomes emboldened.

** Whatever other rules of time travel are followed by the tale, it is impossible to do anything to Hitler. You can do literally anything else, prevent Pompeii from going off and dinosaurs from going extinct, turn UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan into a geek so colossal that ''Film/TheConqueror'' could have been filmed with Creator/WoodyAllen, strangle UsefulNotes/JosefStalin in his crib, help UsefulNotes/{{Napoleon|Bonaparte}} win at Waterloo, turn UsefulNotes/RichardNixon into [[RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman a used car salesman]] and UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan a multiple winner of UsefulNotes/TheEGOTs, but time travellers may as well pretend anytime between April 20, 1889 and April 30, 1945 just does not exists.

** Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ... [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is mistaken for a suicide.]]

** Every attempt at killing Hitler causes an AlternateUniverse in which he escalates his atrocities in retaliation, to the point that the time traveller eventually [[DrivenToSuicide blows their brains out]] when they discover that the Nazis wiped out all the inhabitants of France or something similar. [[TemporalMutability Which in turn creates yet another timeline or universe.]]

** Hitler finds out about being unabled to be killed without creating something even worse, and becomes emboldened.

* '''Played for Horror''': Every attempt at killing Hitler causes an AlternateUniverse in which he escalates his atrocities in retaliation, to the point that the time traveller eventually [[DrivenToSuicide blows their brains out]] when they discover that the Nazis wiped out all the inhabitants of France or something similar. [[TemporalMutability Which in turn creates yet another timeline or universe.]]

** Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ... [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is]] [[https://xkcd.com/1063/ mistaken for a suicide.]]

** However, that allows UsefulNotes/JosefStalin's power to run unchecked, [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert and he invades the now-peaceful Europe]] [[DirtyCommunists with no less brutality than Hitler would]].

** Bob tries asking his fellow TimePolice if any of them would go back to kill Hitler, only for Charlie, one of the founding members, to answer that he ''did'' kill Hitler ''without'' time travel, [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld since he was already alive back in World War II]] [[BeenThereShapedHistory and made it look like the suicide history knows it as]].

* '''Exploited''': People use the "killing Hitler" gimmick as a way to [[SchmuckBait lure]] [[TheDitz dumb people]] onto a time machine and [[UriahGambit dump them somewhere where they would make the least ripples possible.]]

** A Holocaust survivor goes back in time to kill Hitler and thus [[ItsPersonal save his family and friends]] [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong among countless others]] -- [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but it only makes matters worse]], [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel making the Axis win WWII.]]
** A Jewish time traveler keeps trying and fails to kill Hitler before he's done anything wrong, [[FreudianExcuse which fuels his anti-semitism]] [[StableTimeLoop and eventually motivates him to become the genocidal dictator we all know]]. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Upon realizing]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero they inadvertently caused Hitler's rise to power and genocidal biogtry]], [[DrivenToSuicide the Jewish time traveler kills themselves]].

* '''Played for Horror''': Every attempt at killing Hitler causes an AlternateUniverse in which he escalates his atrocities in retaliation, to the point that the time traveller eventually [[DrivenToSuicide blows their brains out]] when they discover that the Nazis wiped out all the inhabitants of France or something similar. [[TemporalMutability Which in turn]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog creates yet another timeline or universe.]]

* '''Exploited''': People use the "killing Hitler" gimmick as a way to lure [[TheDitz dumb people]] onto a time machine and dump them somewhere where they would make the least ripples possible.

** Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ... [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is mistaken for a suicide.]]

** Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ... [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is]] {{xkcd.com/1063/ mistaken for a suicide.}}

** Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ... [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is]] [[xkcd.com/1063/ mistaken for a suicide.]]

** Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ... [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is]] [[xkcd.com/1063 mistaken for a suicide.]]

** [[{{xkcd.com/1063}} Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler]] ... [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is mistaken for a suicide.]]

** [[{{xkcd.com/1063}} Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ...]] [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is mistaken for a suicide.]]

** [[xkcd.com/1063 Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ...]] [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is mistaken for a suicide.]]

** Bob goes back in time and kills Hitler ... [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast in a way that is mistaken for a suicide.]]

** Whatever other rules of time travel are followed by the tale, it is impossible to do anything to Hitler. You can do literally anything else, prevent Pompeii from going off and dinosaurs from going extinct, turn UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan into a geek so colossal that ''Film/TheConqueror'' could have been filmed with Creator/WoodyAllen, strangle UsefulNotes/JosefStalin in his crib, help UsefulNotes/{{Napoleon|Bonaparte}} win at Waterloo, turn UsefulNotes/RichardNixon into [[RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman a used car salesman]] and UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan a multiple winner of UsefulNotes/TheEGOTs, but time travellers may as well just avoid going anywhere between April 20, 1889 and April 30, 1945.

** Alternatively, you can get Hitler into art school, but another German nationalist simply rises in his place and still launches a war, albeit with a different strategy and different motivations. He might conquer Soviet Russia, but he wouldn't pursue genocidal policies against Jews and Slavs.

** Alternatively, you can get Hitler into art school, but another German nationalist simply rises in his place and still launches a war, albeit with a different strategy and different motivations.

** Bob kills Hitler and prevents WWII. He returns to the present time and finds that [[ForWantOfANail his interference]] has caused all sorts of illogical consequences, such as Dvorak becoming the most widely used keyboard layout, the line "BeamMeUpScotty" actually being said in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment his friend Alice growing a handlebar mustache.]]

* '''Conversed''': "I wonder why killing Hitler always ends bad for time travellers on TV." "Perhaps because UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was such a crucial event of the twentieth century? You can't just remove ''that'' and call it a day."

* '''Invoked''': The TimePolice monitor Hitler and prevent time-travellers from killing him so that history runs its natural course.

** Exaggerated Inversion: Killing UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt early causes the United States to enter the war much sooner and inspires the Manhattan Project to be developed much earlier. When the neo-Nazis return to their present, they find that Berlin has been reduced to an irradiated crater, and [[IronicHell the rest of the German Reich split amongst the French, the Polish, and an Israeli satellite state]].

* '''Averted''': Killing Hitler before September 1, 1939 manages to prevent UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, thus becoming nonexistent.

** The series [[YouCantFight has a strict no changing history rule]].

* '''Enforced''': The author can't imagine [[AlternateHistory the world where World War II hasn't happened]].

* '''Played for Drama''': A Holocaust survivor goes back in time to kill Hitler and thus [[ItsPersonal save his family and friends]] [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong among countless others]] -- [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but it only makes matters worse]], [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel making the Axis win WWII.]]