Never the Selves Shall Meet: Difference between revisions
m
→Anime and Manga
m (update links) |
|||
| (18 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:Madoka galaxy annihilation.png|450px|thumb]]
{{quote|''Alright, this next test may involve trace amounts of [[Time Travel]]. So, word of advice: if you meet yourself on the testing track, don't make eye contact. Lab boys tell me that'll [[Time Crash|wipe out time. Entirely. Forward and backward]]. So do both of yourselves a favor and just let that [[Screw Yourself|handsome devil]] go about his business.''|'''Cave Johnson''', Aperture Science CEO, ''[[Portal 2]]''}}
For some reason, encountering
This may result from attempts to apply causality to time travel: you can't meet a past version of yourself without having memory of it and the future version of yourself cannot be surprised to see past you, having had to be there to see it to make it possible. However, this can be easily avoided if you fail to recognize yourself. As a result it's generally correlated with time travel of the [[Timey-Wimey Ball]] variety, and negatively correlated with [[Stable Time Loop
Note that this trope is now so well known that movies which use Time travel often only throw out a one-liner warning: "Whatever you do, don't meet up with yourself!" It's now becoming a trope in and of itself to make the reason for not meeting up not a dire end-of-the-world reason, but merely for convenience of the Master Plan, as in [[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]] where {{spoiler|Spock meets himself, 129 years older}}. These often result in [[My Future Self and Me]].
A closely related trope is [[Only One Me Allowed Right Now]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', future selves take great care to conceal themselves from past selves who didn't see their own future selves. However, they also take just as much take care to '''reveal''' themselves to past selves who remember seeing or hearing their future selves. Basically, future selves act so that [[Stable Time Loop|their past self experiences events as their future self remembers them.]]
Line 17 ⟶ 18:
* In the manga version of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', during the [[Time Travel]] to the thirtieth century, the titular character feels faint in the presence of her future self, Neo-Queen Serenity, and her body becomes transparent; her Silver Crystal also loses its power under the influence of its future counterpart. At the end of this story arc, Neo-Queen Serenity tries to resist the temptation of talking to her past self, since it may result in the history being changed... fails, and goes to meet Sailor Moon anyway. The story also involved Prince Demand attempting to [[The End of the World as We Know It|bring the world to an end]] by bringing together the two Silver Crystals. Interestingly, in ''Stars'' it appears that the selves ''can'' meet, if one of them is (supposedly) from an alternate distant future and in disguise. Possibly.
* Played straight in [[Kimagure Orange Road]]. Touching your past self will cause the future version to dissolve. Never really explained exactly what happens to the future self but it gets shelved under "a bad idea to try".
* Played with quite a bit in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' during the Mahorafest arc. The aim is to not let the selves meet, but often the later selves run into the earlier selves, and at times, a character runs into one version of a character almost immediately after leaving another version of the character, causing
* ''[[Natsu no Arashi]]!'' firmly enforces this. People start to fade when they get close to their past selves, and if you meet yourself, you'll vanish entirely. Time doesn't like people having two of themselves in one place.
* In ''[[Kurokami]]'', every person has two dopplegangers. If a person ever comes in contact with either of these doppelgangers, all three of them will die.
Line 24 ⟶ 25:
* ''[[Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin]]'' goes for the worst possible variation. {{spoiler|Fumiaki meeting his past self overloads the timeline and causes the apocalypse. Though he does [[Screw Destiny]] and prevents the thing he caused.}}
* In ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Steel Ball Run]]'', this trope is applied to versions of people and objects from parallel universes. In "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", the [[Psychic Powers|Stand]] of the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|[[President Evil|Funny Valentine]]}}, specifically protects him from the effects of this, but also allows him to use it against his enemies.
* This Trope is defied in the climax of ''[[Pokémon 4Ever]]'', where hundreds of counterparts of Cerebi arrive from multiple points in history to aid the one in the present. Justified, of course, because for Cerebi, [[Time Lord| traveling through time is as easy as it is for most people to walk]], so it makes sense there was no danger.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
Line 34 ⟶ 36:
* Also, the first time the current version of Supergirl met Power Girl, shaking her hand caused Power Girl to suddenly go berserk and attack everyone. This was attributed to them being alternate universe counterparts and it making reality glitch out for a moment or something, but it hasn't happened since.
* In ''Timecop'', you can meet yourself and even talk to yourself, as long as you do not ''touch'', because "the same matter can't occupy the same space at the same time". When the [[Big Bad]] does (with the hero's "help"), both selves melt and are erased from time.
* Major Victory of the [[Marvel Universe]], after he travels back to the present, has to be careful about this with his ''shield'', since it's [[Captain America
* One ''Wolverine'' comic involves Jubilee going back in time. Her past self temporarily disappears.
== [[
* Around the time ''[[Titanic]]'' came out, a lot of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' fanfics got written with the Doctor and co. visiting the doomed ship. One fanfic lampshades this by having the TARDIS appear on the ''Titanic'' only for the Doctor to moan, "Oh not again!" His companions look around and notice that a large percentage of the passengers are [[The Nth Doctor|different versions of the Doctor]] and his various companions. "The TARDIS just seems to ''like'' the North Atlantic," he sighs.
* There was a ''[[My Little Pony:
** Another fanfic, [[On A Cross And Arrow]], instead had dimensional travel replacing time travel. Twilight ended up sending the Mane Six into an alternate dimension where everyone is genderswapped
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Back to The Future]]'', as noted on the quotes page. Probably the [[Trope Codifier]] in film, despite the trope being less a hard and fast rule and more of a general guideline.
** In the movies, nothing worse than fainting happens, and both Doc and Biff seem able to avoid even that by averting their eyes from themselves, or maybe just by being prepared for it. It seems that young Biff in the '50s had no basis to suspect that the "crazy old codger" was himself. It's also entirely possible that the "destroy the universe by temporal paradox" hypothesis was just that - a hypothesis, and there never was any real danger at all.
*** [[Word of God|The two Bobs]] explain that Doc's concern is that the recognition of a past character meeting his or her future self could lead to an event that causes the paradox; for example, while the two Jennifers simply passed out when meeting each other, the producers explain that had "young" Jennifer fallen, hit her head and sustained a fatal injury she would not have had a future self to trigger the incident, resulting in a paradox.
** Likewise, in the 2011 video game, the beginning of Episode 2 requires Marty to retrace his steps and keep his grandfather from getting killed while trying not to run into himself from a few hours ago (during the events of Episode 1). To make things even more confusing, the end of the final episode of the game has Marty arguing with Marty and Marty over which timeline is correct, while a confused Marty looks on. And yet Doc still says, while all of these Martys are having their little discussion, that them meeting each other could destroy the space-time continuum. Still seems fine at the moment.
* In ''Happy Accidents'', Sam explains that it is impossible for time travelers to travel back within their own lifetimes; the only time travel possible is movement far into the past.
Line 52 ⟶ 55:
* Subverted in ''[[Primer]]'': when the protagonists start time traveling, they take elaborate precautions to avoid meeting themselves, but it becomes progressively more clear that (aside from creating permanent duplicates of themselves) these precautions are [[Wrong Genre Savvy|totally unnecessary]]. By the end of the movie, Aaron has drugged his past self's breakfast and stowed him in the attic, and is then promptly attacked by yet another, future, version of himself.
* Played with in ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'': {{spoiler|Spock Prime insists that Kirk cannot tell the younger Spock about his existence, with the heavy implication that some kind of universe-ending unpleasantness would ensue if he did. At the end, Spock Prime then seeks out and introduces himself to himself, and all-but-admits that he lied to Kirk, or at least deliberately left the universe-ending implication open. This was so that young Spock would eventually learn to develop the same bond that existed between Spock Prime and the Kirk of his reality.}}
* ''[[Déjà Vu (film)|Deja Vu]]'' took care to avoid potential paradoxes like this in an unwritten way by ensuring that the Denzel who traveled back in time died without ever meeting his younger self.
* In ''[[Lost Highway]]'', Fred Madison buzzes himself on the intercom to tell himself, "Dick Laurent is dead." A [[David Lynch]] film, of course, this is open to interpretation.
* ''[[Godzilla]] Vs. King Ghidorah'' involves a Time Travel plot to remove the original dinosaur that became Godzilla from an island occupied by Japanese Troops in WWII. When one character asks why they couldn't bring one of the Japanese WWII veterans they knew with them, since they'd know where the dinosaur would be, the Futurians who had the time machine explain that if the same person was in the same point in time twice, it would cause a paradox that would cause one or both of the person in question to be wiped from existence.
Line 60 ⟶ 63:
* In [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' novels, time-travel is generally exhausting, but is substantially more so when traveling near oneself. This one's also an example in a [[Stable Time Loop]] world.
** Note that ''both'' selves will feel the effects. If you suddenly feel dizzy and weak for no reason, it might mean that future-you is in the vicinity.
* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novel ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy|The Last Command]]'' by [[Timothy Zahn]] has a variant of this trope, involving [[Cloning Blues|clones]] instead of time travel. Clones grown near other set up "resonance effects" in the Force, which can drive them insane, and when Luke encounters his clone, he finds the experience incredibly off-putting: there's a buzzing hum in the Force that makes it hard to concentrate or think, making it difficult to fight the clone. This only seems to affect clones whose growth has been accelerated to an extreme degree
* One of the most important rules of [[Time Travel]] in ''[[Harry Potter]]
* The ''[[Time Scout]]'' series, which already presents time travel as potentially dangerous if you don't get the small details right, also avoids the meet-yourself problem by making it clear that you must never go back to a time when you already exist, either by having been born by then, or having previously visited via time travel; otherwise, since you can't be in two places at once, the "current" you who went back in time would simply wink out of existence the instant you arrived, and that's the end of you.
* In [[Connie Willis]]'s time-travel books, you simply ''can't'' go back to a time you've already visited. If you try it
* Subverted in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' novel ''
* [[Diana Wynne Jones]]' novels often involve alternate universes and occasionally also time travel, which means they touch on this from time to time:
** ''A Sudden Wild Magic'' has an example similar to the ''Stargate'' one
** In ''Charmed Life'', the character who manages to travel into an alternate universe does so via a method which cyclically displaces all her alternate selves, so every universe that had a version of her continues to do so. In fact, the main qualification for Chrestomanci, the enchanter who keeps all the other magic users in line, is that he have nine lives. This makes it possible for him to go to other universes comparatively easily: he has the extra lives because the alternate selves who would otherwise have them don't exist.
** But in ''A Tale of Time City'', Vivian, Jonathan and Sam manage to be on the same railway platform in ''three different incarnations'' at the same moment and nothing happens - although they're careful not to be seen, it's just in case they change history. {{spoiler|More than they already have, anyway.}}
Line 73 ⟶ 76:
* In the ''[[Warcraft]]'' time-traveling trilogy ''[[War of the Ancients]]'', the character Krasus (a dragon shapeshifted into an elf) is unable to transform into his dragon form because he already exists, as his younger counterpart Korialstraz. Likewise, Korialstraz is unable to transform into anything else. The two are weaker the farther apart they are, but become stronger when they're close. The two work around this problem somewhat by giving each other one of their scales.
* Subverted in book six of the ''Artemis Fowl'' series, appropriately titled "The Time Paradox". The premise is that {{spoiler|in order to save his mother, Artemis must travel back in time to stop his past self from wiping out the last of the silky sifaka lemurs, whose brain fluid can cure her. Artemis meets himself, does battle with himself several times (and Butler, who's arguably the more dangerous of the two), and eventually the two Artemises collaborate to bring down Opal Koboi.}}
* In ''[[The End of Eternity]]'', there is a natural law that keeps Reality from developing paradoxes, and thus keeps anyone from meeting his own past self. (The standard [[Grandfather Paradox]] is dismissed as the speculation of people who don't know about time travel.) So when the main character does see his own future self going about his time-travelling business, it's a sign that the normal way of things is beginning to fall apart.
* In ''[[The Book of the New Sun]]'', Severian feels absolutely certain that if he accidentally met himself while time traveling, one or both of them would go mad and kill the other.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* This has, not surprisingly, come up a few time on ''[[Doctor Who]]'', though he has had no trouble (usually) meeting past versions of himself.
** The Doctor, while visiting a fascist [[Mirror Universe]] of Earth, claims that if that universe's evil version of Brigadier were to meet the original it would destroy both universes. {{spoiler|The evil Brigadier wants to force the Doctor to save him from his Earth, which volcanic eruptions would destroy in a matter of minutes.}}
** In "Father's Day", traveling to the same place twice allows Rose to create a [[Temporal Paradox]]; later in the same episode, she gives more power to that story's [[Clock Roaches]] {{spoiler|by touching her own infant self}}. It's revealed, though, that cleaning up paradoxes without such things happening is part of what the Time Lords did. Now that there ''aren't'' any more, there's no one to prevent such things from happening. This may explain why no flying killer time monkeys appeared during any serial with a title of the form "The [number] Doctors."
** ''Mawdryn Undead'' shows that when the Brigadier met his younger self, the resulting "Blinovitch Limitation Effect" had the effect {{spoiler|of giving the younger Brigadier a nervous breakdown, as well as enough [[Pure Energy]] to kill a half-dozen immortal aliens}}. In terms of the Brigadier, this created a neat [[Stable Time Loop]].
** Of course, the original series also has several stories where [[The Nth Doctor|multiple incarnations of the Doctor]] were brought together in the same place at the same time, without any apparent ill effects to the [[Timey-Wimey Ball]] that is the [[Whoniverse]]. (Most of the time, this could be explained by the fact that the multiple incarnations aren't ''entirely'' the same person. But a couple of times two of the same incarnation have met.)
** The 2007 special ''Time Crash'' blamed [[Peter Davison]]'s Doctor aging 30 years on temporal weirdness resulting from being in the same room with himself. (This same explanation may be used to justify the relatively minor differences in appearance occurring in multi-Doctor stories in the original series- the biggest of which (besides [[The Other Darrin]] example of the new First Doctor) was the obviously-older Second Doctor in "The Two Doctors". But then the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] explains the latter, anyway.)
** Funnily enough, this flies out the window in "The Big Bang" when Amy meets her seven-year-old self ("Amelia"), and touches her a couple of times in sizing her up. Possible [[Fan Wank]]s include a) Amelia is from an alternate timeline, so they're not technically the same person (apart from anything else, she {{spoiler|vanishes minutes later, so she obviously doesn't grow up to become Amy}}), and b) with the whole Universe toast, save for the Earth and {{spoiler|the TARDIS explosion acting as a substitute Sun}}, there are probably no [[Clock Roaches]], and really more pressing matters at hand than a couple of silly old paradoxes.
** Lampshaded later when Amy mentions that she met herself, and Rory responds that, to be fair, {{spoiler|the universe did blow up}}.
Line 90 ⟶ 93:
** The never-aging Captain Jack, {{spoiler|while trapped in 1901, orders himself [[Human Popsicle|cryogenically frozen]] to avoid meeting in the intervening decades before the present,}} and to prevent himself from meeting his [[Doctor Who|"Boom Town"]] self in 2006.
** At the end of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," the whole team, having gone back to earlier that day, are told that they must avoid themselves.
** It seems, though, that they're more worried about changing their own history than a [[Time Crash]] resulting from simply being in the same place, since the same person being in the same place has happened so many times safely. If you interfere where you've ''already'' interfered, though, the [[Clock Roaches]] will
* In ''[[Seven Days]]'', whenever Parker travels back in time, his younger self, the sphere, and one trip's worth of their alien fuel source vanishes.
* Generally averted in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', as several characters have met past or future selves without anything happening because of it. It's occasionally [[Discussed Trope|discussed]], though:
** The [[Genre Savvy]] Time Traveler Hiro Nakamura runs into his future self, only to cry in dismay, "Aren't you afraid of disrupting the Space-Time Continuum?"
** And before that, when he realizes he's accidentally ended up talking to his ''past'' self on the phone, he hangs up instantly, exclaiming "[[Back to The Future|Great Scott!]]"
* A non-time-travel variant occurs in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': anyone who travels to another dimension is subject to quantum seizures if they have a living counterpart. You can survive for short periods, and are exempt if your counterpart is dead, which saves Daniel in one episode, Kowalsky in a second, and Carter in a ''third''. Time travel, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have this effect in any way.
* This trope gets smashes into the ground with the character of Martin Summers in ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]''. Then again, in the light of the finale, {{spoiler|whether it ''actually'' applies is debatable}}.
* [[NBC]]'s ''[[Journeyman]]'' doesn't even bother to explain why you shouldn't be seen by your other
** Like ''[[Back to The Future]]'', this winds up less of a cosmic rule and more of a
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' does this too, at the end of series 6. The crew's future selves travel back in time to meet them as they are at that point for some repairs. Kryten admonishes the crew to not contact the future Dwarfers to avoid gaining inappropriate knowledge of the future. They watch instead, and despise what they became. The result? 'I say we fight. ... Better dead than smeg.' From the snivelling, whining coward (according to everyone, including himself) Rimmer. Causes a paradox anyway, but that's what they ''wanted'' at that point.
* In the outtake "Orchid Orientation Film" from the ''[[Lost]]'' season 3 DVDs, a time travel experiment involving bunnies apparently goes wrong. The scientist shields one of two identical bunnies from the other and shouts, "Don't let them see each other!" The series proper averts the trope, though.
Line 107 ⟶ 110:
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In the core ''Timemaster'' rules (from the defunct Pacesetter Games), it was impossible to meet up with yourself. Any attempt to travel to a time period you already occupied put you into a "Loop Trap"
* Played with in ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]''. Interacting with your younger self is relatively safe compared to all the other stupid things you can do during a time-travel jaunt. However, going back in time to the same moment twice and coming into contact with your own time-traveling self is an excellent way to drive yourself all sorts of
* In the obscure [[Dungeons
** Played with regarding the phane, a [[Eldritch Abomination| type of abomination]] detailed in the 2nd Edition's ''Epic Level Handbook''. A phane can use a unique spell-like ability where it summons a "past time duplicate" of one of its foes, a younger version created from the foe's past self which is under the phane's control. Should this past self be killed, it does not harm the original, seeing as this is, in effect, the victim's past self from an [[Alternate Reality]]. However, the victim does not necessarily know that, and if witnessing the ability for the first time, seeing his past self die can cause quite a shock, leaving him shaken for a few combat rounds, not a good situation to be in when facing an enemy this powerful.
* ''[[Continuum]]'' not only [[Inverted Trope|inverts this]], but expects this will happen and has rules (both etiquette and mechanical) on how to handle such an event (dubbed a "Gemini incident"). Remember to respect your elders.
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has rules in place to partially enforce the alternate-universes version of this, although whether the time-travel version is also enforced depends on whether you're a legendary creature or a planeswalker:
Line 122 ⟶ 126:
* In ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', it's explained that having copies of the same person present in the same time period causes a strain on reality that will manifest on both copies, as reality cannot truly distinguish between them. They will slowly start siphoning knowledge and skills from each other merely by being around each other, and eventually, one or the other has to go. This is compounded more directly in-story by {{spoiler|the future copy trying to cause a time paradox by killing his younger version so he can stop existing.}}
* Subverted in one of the ''[[Sam and Max]]'' episodes, involving a lot of time travel. The duo meet their past selves from a year and a half earlier, putting them early in the previous season. It doesn't mess up the universe, but it does result in Sam and Max {{spoiler|getting trapped in the past and having to relive the entire year and a half over again because the past versions of themselves steal the time machine}}.
* Through the mixed-up and convoluted story of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
** Averted in ''[[Sonic Generations]]''. The entire gimmick of the game revolves around both Classic and Modern Sonics (and they meet up rather quickly.) In addition, there is also a meeting up of Classic and Modern Tails {{spoiler|and Classic and Modern Eggman - who both pilot the final boss.}}
* ''[[Portal 2]]'' has the quote at the top of this page.
* In ''[[Onimusha]] 3: Demon Siege'', {{spoiler|player-Samanosuke comes back in time and sees his alternate-timeline self laying slain by Nobunaga. Touching his Oni Gauntlet merges the two together and the combined power from the paradox enables Nobunaga's defeat.}}
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' defies this in one quest in Dragonflight where you have to take the [[Artifact of Doom| Hourglass of Eternity]] to the Bronze Dragon shrine. When you do so, your future self appears and helps you defend it from the Infinite Dragon Flight. How did that happen? [[Time Lord|Chromie]] later tells you to do it again, and this time your past self appears to help you. Given how [[Eldritch Location| the Bronze Dragon Shrine works]], it is implied that the second quest was done to intentionally create a [[Stable Time Loop]] to send backup for the first quest.
** Chromie herself Defy it even further; as a playable character in the ''[[Heroes of the Storm]]'' spin-off, she can form a team with her past self, future self, and "future super-creepy" self. But then, she ''is'' a [[Time Lord]]. She even lampshades this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80bBqPdjBAs| (in this trailer)] by saying even she can't be in two places at the same time, but she ''can'' have more than one of herself in one place at a time.
== [[Web
* Example in ''Alfheim'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20131029072810/http://www.bookelves.com/archive/alfheim-current.php?p=54 "One false move and we're all pink wombats!"]
* Mostly averted in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', except that Schlock's [[Bizarre Alien Biology]] causes him to involuntarily merge with his doppelganger.
* Happens in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', though for far more mundane reasons.
{{quote|"If some guy came up to me claiming to be my future self, I'd sense a setup and toss him overboard, figuring if he ''was'' me I would have expected that."}}
** Meeting and hanging around with yourself in Timeless Space is generally considered a bad idea, since it means you've managed to escape once before (and returned later), and most denizens of the place would ''kill'' to find out how you did it (or to prevent their enemies from finding it out). Having a normal twin is even more dangerous since people will just think you managed to escape even
* One of the results of [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/5/3/ Gabe using a time helmet] in ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' and meeting himself apparently involves reality breaking into warring shards floating in a sea of un-time.
* One of the big issues in the first time travel arc of ''[[Casey and Andy]]'', when several of the main characters end up back in the time when they were in high school. But it's easy to find the young Casey and Andy, since you only have to {{spoiler|look for the biggest explosion.}}
* Played straight (so far) in ''[[Sailor Sun]]'' as Honey (the [[Kid From the Future]]) seems to be unaware that her present self (Brady) was sent to live with her aunt shortly before Honey arrived in our time and it's implied that her mother may be deliberately keeping her in the dark.
* In [[Persona 3 FTW]], the [[Persona 3]] Protagonist meeting his [[Distaff Counterpart]] (and making out with her) causes the Earth to implode.
* In ''[[Captain SNES]]'', this appears in [http://www.captainsnes.com/2010/12/31/7-effect-and-cause/ this side comic], and is explained on the next page.
Line 145 ⟶ 151:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The ''[[Ben 10:
* One episode of ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' has the heroes encounter their alternates from another dimension (where the biggest difference was that Buzz himself was evil). XR warns the team to avoid touching their
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie ''Bender's Big Score'', we learn that duplicates of persons or objects created by time travel are automatically doomed, as a form of [[Equivalent Exchange]]. This becomes a plot point as we learn that {{spoiler|Leela's new fiancee is another version of Fry, and calls off the wedding rather than subject Leela to the grief caused by his ultimate demise
{{quote|'''Scammer Alien:''' I met my past self in a bar for a drink, one thing led to another, and [[Screw Yourself|we ended up back at my place]]. Or should I say 'our' place. (passionately embraces duplicate)
'''Everyone Else:''' Ewwwww!!!
'''Scammer Alien:''' Oh come on, you prudes!
* In the season finale of ''[[Superjail]]'', the Warden goes back in time to his own trial to save himself
{{quote|''"Stop touching yourself!"''}}
* On ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', Kowalski invents a time machine, but a future Kowalski has come to get Private to stop him, warning him that if both Kowalskis were to ever meet, it would cause a rip in the space-time continuum. Also, a ''third'' Kowalski has come to get Skipper to keep the time machine from being destroyed. When the two future Kowaslkis meet, they reassure the others that it's okay, [[Tempting Fate|as long as the ''original'' Kowalski doesn't see them]]. And that's when the original Kowalski sees them, causing the space-time rupture that led them all here in the first place.▼
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'':
▲* On ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', Kowalski invents a time machine, but a future Kowalski has come to get Private to stop him, warning him that if both Kowalskis were to ever meet, it would cause a rip in the space-time continuum. Also, a ''third'' Kowalski has come to get Skipper to keep the time machine from being destroyed. When the two future Kowaslkis meet, they reassure the others that it's okay, as long as the ''original'' Kowalski doesn't see them. And that's when original Kowalski sees them, causing the space-time rupture that led them all here in the first place.
** Played for laughs in the [[Foghorn Leghorn]] cartoon "Little Boy Boo". While playing hide-and-seek with Junior, Foghorn Leghorn hides in a feed box, [[Tempting Fate|claiming the kid would need a slide rule to find him]]. Junior writes out some equations, using a slide rule no less, then marks a spot before digging Foghorn up from it. This leaves Foghorn irate, at which point the child shows him the equations; forced to admit that "figures don't lie", Foghorn is nevertheless curious and makes to open the lid, but stops himself midway through.
* In ''[[Taz-Mania]]'', Marvin the Martian's team-up with Taz. For whatever reason, hooking Taz up to some big gyroscope thing allows him to spin them through time. Marvin is always cautioning him not to meet himself, as "It results in an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]." Of course, he forgets this advice.▼
{{quote|'''Foghorn:''' ...No, I'd better not look
▲*
▲{{quote|'''Foghorn:''' No, I'd better not look. I just ''might'' be in there! }}
* In the DCAU, specifically in ''[[Justice League]]'', this is the explanation used by Vandal Savage for why he doesn't go to the past and stop himself from destroying the world; considering that Vandal Savage is an immortal caveman who has lived out virtually all of human history, that means he effectively can't time travel at all. He specifically says that it's a result of his particular time machine's design rather than an immutable law of the universe. In fact, Batman travels to the future and meets the ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' version of himself in a later episode, with no consequences. Admittedly, time outright ''collapsed'' in that episode, so "no consequences" is a bit of a relative term. In the short term, at least, it turned out fine.
** Other than the alterations Vandal wanted to cause, his meeting of his past self didn't seem to cause any major damage.
** The ''
* ''[[Bump in the Night]]'': Mr. Bumpy
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'': When David Xanatos went back in time to [[Stable Time Loop|set the events that would lead to his past self receiving the ancient coin he sold in order to have the money to]] [[Self-Made Man|start his fortune]], Demona went back as well and tried to persuade her past self into a [[Face Heel Turn]] earlier than she did in the original timeline. She failed but claimed she remembered that meeting from her past self's point of view and stated the past couldn't be changed.
* ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' received a visit from their future selves with a plan to go to the future (a future ruled by cockroaches) to steal a kit to take over the world. [[Failure Is the Only Option|Not only the plan failed, as usual]], but they ended with several Pinkys and several The Brains.
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': In "A Sitch in Time", when Kim defeated Drakken, Killigan and Monkey Fist, Shego got a visit from her future self, who advised her to steal the time monkey and use it to take over the world. Past Shego first assumed Drakken cloned her.
* ''[[Lilo
* ''[[The Fairly
** "Father Time" had Timmy and his fairies travel back to the 1970's. Timmy found out [[Bill Gates|Billy Gates]] was Cosmo and Wanda's godchild. Cosmo and Wanda met their past selves but nothing bad happened from it. When he was back in present time, a future Timmy showed up with ''his'' Cosmo and Wanda, destroyed the remains of a trophy and told present Timmy he'd thank him for it. [[Noodle Incident|One can only wonder why]].
** "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker" had Timmy and his fairies going back to 1972 and Timmy found out Cosmo and Wanda were Crocker's fairy godparents back then. It's unknown if past Cosmo and Wanda recognized their present selves but there were two Jorgens who even danced together.
** "Channel Chasers": Coming from a [[Bad Future]], an adult Timmy went back to his childhood to prevent Vicky from taking over the world.
* Inverted in ''[[Totally Spies!]]'', where the three Spies are jaunted twenty-years into the future, and can interact with their adult selves safely - and good thing too, because they have to rescue them from the now-villainous Mandy.
* In the ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' episode "Operation: F.U.T.U.R.E.", this is Zigzagged. The villain was apparently able to create the [[Bad Future]] not only by doing this intentionally, but by keeping in regular contact with her future self. On the other hand, Numbuh Four's future self did speak to him after giving the rest of the team vital information needed to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], but he never told them who he was. {{spoiler|And given what is revealed in the [[Series Finale]], it would seem that this future timeline is undone completely, and Numbuh Four's future is changed.}}
* This Trope is ''defied'' in the ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' movie ''Ego Trip'', where the Dexter everyone's familiar with uses his [[Time Machine]] to form a team consisting of himself and his Teenage, Adult, and Elderly selves to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], courtesy of Mandark's tampering. There was no [[Earthshattering Kaboom]], {{spoiler|despite the fact that Mandark used the same trick to fight them. In fact, after Dee Dee intervenes, she accidentally saves the future and turns it into utopia, which annoys all four Dexters enough to build robots that seek her out in the present and [[Stable Time Loop|causing them to attack that Dexter in the first place]]}}.
* The ''[[Miraculous Ladybug]]'' episode "Timebreaker" defies it twice-over. Not only is Ladybug easily able to safely interact with - and form a team with - her past self, but Hawk Moth gets the smart idea to double his pawn's power by sending a second akuma to corrupt the past one, so ''they'' can also form a team. [[Fridge Brilliance]] kicks in here, as two Ladybugs were likely needed to purify two akumas.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:
| |||