Never the Selves Shall Meet: Difference between revisions

* 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"—you'd basically be "stuck" reliving the time covered by the loop over and over. Of course, you wouldn't realize this, because it would be the first time through every time. Better hope one of your teammates is willing to pull you out of the loop. ''Timetricks'', a Timemaster supplement meant for more experienced groups, included a little gadget that would let you bypass a Loop Trap for a short period of time, assuming it worked.

* 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 crazy—when the game describes an act as "about the stupidest thing you can do without a death ray and a bottle of tequila," you ''know'' it's a bad idea. It also [[Gameplay and Story Integration|handily prevents]] a [[Me's a Crowd|"army of temporal duplicates"]] scenario from coming to pass.

* ''[[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:

* 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}}.

** 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.

* 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 counterparts—just as the two Boosters greet each other with a hug. When nothing happens, XR remarks on the trope not applying.

* 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.}} At the end, hundreds of Bender duplicates appear and {{spoiler|as they explode one by one, the sheer volume of temporal anomalies leads to a rupture in the universe - and a [[Sequel Hook]] for the next movie.}} This is ''almost'' a subversion as until time corrects the paradox by destroying the duplicate duplicates are free to touch and interact with each other.

'''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, and by the simple act of hugging his past self, causes the very fabric of reality to completely and utterly fall apart.

* ''[[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.

** "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.

[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]