History StableTimeLoop / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E11AWorldBetweenWorlds A World Between Worlds]]", [[spoiler:Ezra enters the titular EldritchLocation, which is a PlaceBeyondTime containing portals through which all of space and time can be reached. He comes across a portal leading to the planet Malachor, during the events of [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E19TwilightOfTheApprentice "Twilight of]] [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E20TwilightOfTheApprenticePartII the Apprentice"]], two years prior InUniverse, and sees the tail end of Ahsoka Tano's duel with Darth Vader, which she is losing. Just as she shatters the floor, causing Vader to fall through it, Ezra reaches through the portal and pulls her through just before the Malachor Sith temple explodes. This explains the mention that Vader assumed her dead in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsStepsIntoShadow "Steps Into Shadow"]] -- since she was in a place that Vader didn't even know existed, he couldn't sense her. By the end of the episode, instead of coming with Ezra to Lothal, Ahsoka goes back through the Malachor portal, returning shortly after she left. Her appearance in the epilogue of "Twilight of the Apprentice" is shown again, revealing why she went deeper into the ruins -- to find a portal into the world between worlds so she could track down Ezra again. It's also implied by the reveal in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E13FamilyReunionAndFarewell "Family Reunion]] [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E14FamilyReunionAndFarewellPartII -- and Farewell"]] that she survived to Ezra's time, two years later, that she stayed away from the Rebels for all that time because she knew that if the events in Ezra's life after Malachor that led to him entering the world between worlds didn't happen the same way, he wouldn't be able to save her life.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Disenchantment'': Elfo goes back in time to stop whoever shot him with an arrow and killed him. Armed with a bow and arrow, he prepares to fire at whichever soldier shot past him, but when he does fire at a suspicious soldier, he misses and ends up hitting his past self in the back.

** Earlier episodes "And Then There Were None" and "And Then There Was Ben" provide an example that's ''a bit'' more complicated, which involves alternate versions of Ben. [[spoiler:Basically, a version of Ben who never retrieved the Omnitrix is attacked by evil versions of Ben working for Mainstream Vilgax because he sees No Watch Ben as a wildcard, but No Watch Ben is saved by alternate, heroic versions of Omnitrix wielders, including Mainstream Ben. Vilgax is able to kill off all the Omnitrix wielders with a Chronosapien Time Bomb, but Mainstream!Ben passes on his Omnitrix to No Watch Ben before dying. After, Professor Paradox takes No Watch Ben back into time to when Mainstream Ben was 10 years old, it turns out that No Watch Ben is the reason Ben has the Omnitrix at all, including causing the earthquake that caused Mainstream Ben to fall into the crater. After this, No Watch Ben also turns out to have been the one to have recruited all of the alternate versions of heroic Omnitrix wielders, ''including'' Mainstream Ben. After returning to a point after the bomb killed off the Bens, No Watch Ben is able to reverse the damage, and the heroes manage to defeat Vilgax once more.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "Betty", [[spoiler:Simon]] created a portal to the past so that he can say goodbye to [[spoiler:his former girlfriend Betty]] and to gain her forgiveness. This was because he believed that [[spoiler:she fled him in terror, after he did something unpleasant to her in his madness after putting on the crown that turned him into Ice King]]. On seeing him, she jumps into the portal to permanently enter the show's present, explaining why she disappeared.

** Earlier episodes "And Then There Were None" and "And Then There Was Ben" provide an example that's ''a bit'' more complicated, which involves alternate versions of Ben. [[spoiler:Basically, a version of Ben who never retrieved the Omnitrix is attacked by evil versions of Ben working for Mainstream!Vilgax because he sees No Watch!Ben as a wildcard, but No Watch!Ben is saved by alternate, heroic versions of Omnitrix wielders, including Mainstream!Ben. Vilgax is able to kill off all the Omnitrix wielders with a Chronosapien Time Bomb, but Mainstream!Ben passes on his Omnitrix to No Watch!Ben before dying. After, Professor Paradox takes No Watch!Ben back into time to when Mainstream!Ben was 10 years old, it turns out No Watch!Ben is the reason Ben has the Omnitrix at all, including causing the earthquake that caused Mainstream!Ben to fall into the crater. After this, No Watch!Ben also turns out to have been the one to have recruited all of the alternate versions of heroic Omnitrix wielders, ''including'' Mainstream!Ben. After returning to a point after the bomb killed off the Bens, No Watch!Ben is able to reverse the damage, and the heroes manage to defeat Vilgax once more]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'''s episode "Roswell That Ends Well", Farnsworth is very adamant about not changing the past, unless of course it turns out they were ''supposed'' to change the past, in which case, they must, for the love of God, [[ConfusingMultipleNegatives not not change it.]] Fry ends up killing his grandfather Enos by mistake, after an attempt to keep him safe. He impregnates his grandmother, thus becoming his own grandfather, which becomes ChekhovsGun. After that, Farnsworth gives up about not changing the past. The crew blasts up Roswell Air Force Base, steals some gear, rescues Zoidberg and Bender's body, and blasts off into space. Farnsworth then delivers one of the best lines ever: "Choke on ''that'', causality!" Oh yeah, and throughout all this, the crew ends up being the mysterious alien ship that crashed in Roswell, and Zoidberg is the alien.

** ''[[TheMovie Bender's Big Score]]'' adds a few more. The aliens that destroyed civilization in the background while Fry was frozen? That was Bender gone back in time. Fry's dog turned out to have a happy life with a copy of Fry who chose to stay behind in the 2000s, while letting his other copy freeze to the year 3000. The dog gets killed and instantly fossilized when a mind controlled Bender blasts Fry's apartment. [[spoiler:Lars was the copy of Fry who decided to stay in the 2000s. He makes it to the year 2012, making him biologically older than the Fry we know, and his larynx and hair were damaged in the blast. He remembers the name Lars from the future, and thusly knows what to name himself and how to act. The Bender tattoo that allowed him to travel back in time in the first place is glued on by a repaired Bender who did just that in a seemingly random part in the middle of the movie, but who got it from Lars/Fry's dead body at the end.]]
*** Also, in the movie, their main method of time travel is stated to be a self correcting method. Thus, any copies made using the time travel are doomed to die horribly at some point. Some last longer than others. Farnsworth and Nibbler state that there can't be any paradoxes, and if there are, [[spoiler: such as by the end of the movie where it's revealed there's hundreds of Benders (all of whom one Bender foolishly tells to stay underground until that moment, thus completely screwing up the timeline of the whole movie and creating hundreds of paradoxes)]], it rips open a hole in the universe, [[spoiler:which is exactly what happens, leading to the events of the second movie.]]
** The events of "Meanwhile" are a stable loop... possibly one with no escape... barring a reboot happening 10 years later.
* The ''WesternAnimation/GalaxyHigh'' episode "Founder's Day" had Doyle, Aimee, and Milo go back in time and end up responsible for Galaxy High being founded and Luigi setting up the pizzeria Doyle and Milo work at.

** MagnificentBastard David Xanatos uses this to his advantage in "Vows". When pulled to 975 AD, he gives the Illuminati a coin to hold onto for one thousand years, and then deliver it to a young David Xanatos. The coin wasn't worth much in the past, but by the time it reaches him in 1975, it's worth twenty grand, which is the foundation for his fortune. He also gave them a letter to hold onto for 1,020 years, so he'd get it precisely one week before the episode began, telling [[WriteBackToTheFuture himself exactly what to do.]] He uses this as proof to his [[WellDoneSonGuy father]] that he's a SelfMadeMan after-all. [[LoopholeAbuse Dad's not impressed]]. He makes a direct LampshadeHanging of the trope when Goliath arrives to rescue him.
--->'''Goliath''': If I didn't fear the damage you'd do to the timestream, I'd gladly leave you here.\\
'''Xanatos''': But you won't. Because you didn't. Time travel's funny that way.

** In the episode "M.I.A.", [[spoiler:Goliath travels back to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII London to investigate an accusation that he caused the death of a gargoyle back then. He eventually ends up having to take the Gargoyle in question to the present day with him in order to save his life, resulting in his clan assuming his death for fifty years, which they had blamed Goliath for in the present, which led to him going back in time in the first place...]]

** "The Time Traveler's Pig" combines this with SelfFulfillingProphecy and YouAlreadyChangedThePast. Time traveler Blendin Blandin comes to the present from the year Twenty-Sñevety-Twelve to prevent series of time-anomalies from occurring. [[spoiler: It turns out that the anomalies were caused by Dipper and Mabel messing around with Blendin's time traveling device, dropping several items around past episodes, and Blendin is sent to retrieve the litter- explaining why Blendin popped up in those episodes as a FreezeFrameBonus.]]
** "Blendin's Game" has two of them:
*** In the beginning of the episode, Soos shows the twins a trick a certain "genius" taught him to retrieve a jammed snack from the vending machine. When the twins travel back in time ten years, Mabel teaches that exact trick to the 12-year old Soos upon running into him.

* In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League: Unlimited]]'', Braniac 5 summons Franchise/GreenLantern, Comicbook/GreenArrow, and Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} to the 31st century to help in a conflict as history records show that the three time-traveled once- but Supergirl didn't return, implying that she died. At the end [[spoiler: [[ProphecyTwist Supergirl doesn't die, but she enjoys 31st century-Earth more like the advanced society she grew up in, as well as developed a crush on Brainiac 5, that she decides to stay voluntarily.]]]]
** In another episode, Batman reprograms the villain's time belt to stick him in one of these; his StartOfDarkness, in which his shrewish wife berates him over and over, causing him to time-jump to a few seconds ago, into infinity.

* ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' has a particularly mind-screwy example[[note]]coupled with equally mind-screwy animation[[/note]] in "The Witness": A girl sees a man kill someone who looks remarkably similar to herself. He notices her and gives chase; in the end she kills him in an exact reversal of the initial scene. Then she sees a man looking through the window and starts chasing him... It seems the two of them are stuck in some kind of two-phase loop.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' the [[TimeTravel time-travelling]] villain Warp ''claims'' he's taking part in one; he goes back in time to steal a special clock because, a hundred years in the future, the historical records say that someone stole it at that point. It's unclear if this trope is actually in effect or if his attempt merely preempted a more mundane robbery, but regardless, the Titans manage to ScrewDestiny and save the clock.

** The events of "Meanwhile" are a stable loop... possibly one with no escape...

* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "SB-129" had Squidward going to the distant past through a series of events stemming from avoiding [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick trying to get him to go jellyfishing with them. He meets the caveman versions of them and shows them not to be afraid of jellyfish by demonstrating jellyfishing, then giving both nets to try it themselves. Upon his return, he mocks whoever was the one who invented jellyfishing, to which [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick tell Squidward it was him.

* The ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Yesteryear" has Kirk and Spock return from a trip to the past to find that the ship suddenly has a different science officer, and no one else knows who Spock is. Spock relates a memory from his childhood when his life was saved by an adult Vulcan, who he realizes looked exactly like he does now. So he has to take one more trip to the past to save himself and set things right.
** In a very odd scene, the alternate-history science officer, an Andorian, is informed by Spock that Spock's plan, if successful, will mean the Andorian will no longer be the science officer for the Enterprise -- and may in fact ''cease to exist entirely.'' The Andorian accepts this notion with an almost eerie calm, and wishes Spock the best of luck on his quest.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E11AWorldBetweenWorlds "A World Between Worlds"]], [[spoiler:Ezra enters the titular EldritchLocation, which is a PlaceBeyondTime containing portals through which all of space and time can be reached. He comes across a portal leading to the planet Malachor, during the events of [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E19TwilightOfTheApprentice "Twilight of]] [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E20TwilightOfTheApprenticePartII the Apprentice"]], two years prior InUniverse, and sees the tail end of Ahsoka Tano's duel with Darth Vader, which she is losing. Just as she shatters the floor, causing Vader to fall through it, Ezra reaches through the portal and pulls her through just before the Malachor Sith temple explodes. This explains the mention that Vader assumed her dead in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsStepsIntoShadow "Steps Into Shadow"]] — since she was in a place that Vader didn't even know existed, he couldn't sense her. By the end of the episode, instead of coming with Ezra to Lothal, Ahsoka goes back through the Malachor portal, returning shortly after she left. Her appearance in the epilogue of "Twilight of the Apprentice" is shown again, revealing why she went deeper into the ruins — to find a portal into the world between worlds so she could track down Ezra again. It's also implied by the reveal in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E13FamilyReunionAndFarewell "Family Reunion]] [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E14FamilyReunionAndFarewellPartII — and Farewell"]] that she survived to Ezra's time, two years later, that she stayed away from the Rebels for all that time because she knew that if the events in Ezra's life after Malachor that led to him entering the world between worlds didn't happen the same way, he wouldn't be able to save her life.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': In "WesternAnimation/TheUltimateEnemy", the events that led to [[FutureMeScaresMe Dark Danny]] being formed began when Danny's friends and family were killed in an explosion and Danny moved in with Vlad. [[spoiler:Said explosion occurred after Danny and Dark Danny's climactic fight, but when Danny is again unable to save the captives in time, Clockwork arrives to give him a second chance and break the loop.]]

* Time travel in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" operates on this principle. We see this demonstrated very early on when Lilith seemingly trips over a rock, only for it to be revealed a few minutes later that what she actually tripped over was her own head looking through a time pool. [[spoiler:It's hinted at the time (and later confirmed in "Hollow Mind") that Emperor Belos was aware of the fact that the entire series up to this point had been part of a single 350+ year loop and had Flora subtly push Luz and Lilith into seeking out the time pools so they would go back and teach his younger self the light glyph. Once he gets conformation that the loop has been closed, he almost immediately tries to kill Luz as [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she's become nothing but a liability for him]].]]

* Time travel in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" operates on this principle. We see this demonstrated very early on when Lilith seemingly trips over a rock, only for it to be revealed a few minutes later that what she actually tripped over was her own head looking through a time pool. [[spoiler:It's hinted at the time (and later confirmed in "Hollow Mind") that Emperor Belos was aware of the fact that the entire series up to this point had been part of a single 350+ year loop and had Flora subtly push Luz and Lilith into seeking out the time pools so they would go back and teach his younger self the light glyph. Once he gets conformation that the loop's been closed, he almost immediately tries to kill her as [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she's become nothing but a liability for him]].]]

* Time travel in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" operates on this principle. We see this demonstrated very early on when Lilith seemingly trips over a rock, only for it to be revealed a few minutes later that what she actually tripped over was her own head looking through a time pool. [[spoiler:It's hinted at the time (and later confirmed in "Hollow Mind") that Emperor Belos was aware of the loop and had Flora subtly push Luz and Lilith into seeking out the time pools so they would go back and teach his younger self the light glyph.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' Gargamel uses Father Time's magical hourglass to travel back in time to his childhood when he saw the Smurfs for the first time vent on killing the Smurfs with a rock over the spot the Smurfs stood at the time. Things however happen differently when Bigmouth appears distracting him, he drops the rock before time causing it to fall on his younger self while persecuting the Smurfs, presumably causing his early hatred for them.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "The Time Traveler's Pig" combines this with SelfFulfillingProphecy and YouAlreadyChangedThePast. Time traveler Blendin Blandin comes to the present from the year Twenty-Sñevety-Twelve to prevent series of time-anomalies from occurring. [[spoiler: It turns out that the anomalies were caused by Dipper and Mabel messing around with Blendin's time traveling device, dropping several items around past episodes, and Blendin is sent to retrieve the litter- explaining why Blendin popped up in those episodes as a FreezeFrameBonus.]]

* Time travel in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" operates on this principle. We see this demonstrated very early on when Lilith seemingly trips over a rock, only for it to be revealed a few minutes later that what she actually tripped over was her own head looking through a time pool. [[spoiler:It's hinted at the time (and later confirmed in "Hollow Mind") that Emperor Belos was aware of the loop and Flora subtly push Luz and Lilith into seeking out the time pools so they would go back and teach his younger self the light glyph.]]

* Time travel in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" operates on this principle. We see this demonstrated very early on when Lilith seemingly trips over a rock, only for it to be revealed a few minutes later that what she actually tripped over was her own head looking through a time pool. [[spoiler:It's hinted that Emperor Belos was aware of the loop and Flora subtly push Luz and Lilith into seeking out the time pools so they would go back and teach his younger self the light glyph.]]

* Time travel in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" operates on this principle. We see this demonstrated very early on when Lilith seemingly trips over a rock, only for it to be revealed a few minutes later that what she actually tripped over was her own head looking through a time pool. [[spoiler:It's hinted that Emperor Belos was aware of the loop and that he had Flora subtly push Luz and Lilith into seeking out the time pools so they would go back and teach his younger self the light glyph.]]

* Time travel in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" operates on this principle. We see this demonstrated very early on when Lilith seemingly trips over a rock, only for it to be revealed a few minutes later that what she actually tripped over was her own head looking through a time pool. [[spoiler:It's hinted that Emperor Belos was aware of the loop since at least the previous season's finale and that he had Flora subtly push Luz and Lilith into seeking out the time pools so they would go back and teach his younger self the light glyph.]]

* In the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', [[spoiler:the villain Maltruant is revealed to be stuck in one, something that he is ''completely unaware of''. He reassembles himself, sets out to remake the universe in his image by going to before time has started and the current universe has yet to be created, only to be defeated and destroyed by Ben. Then Professor Paradox hides the pieces of him across the universe with his memory wiped, and the cycle of reassembly and defeat starts all over again.]]