Only One Me Allowed Right Now: Difference between revisions

Note that this is NOT ''not''[[Never the Selves Shall Meet]]. In that one, you can have millions of copies of a same character running around in the same universe without that much trouble, only they must not meet each other. In this case, even though there are only 2 copies and they are at the opposite side of the universe, the problem still happens.

* In one episode of ''[[SgtKeroro FrogGunsou]]'', Keroro accidentally [[Me's a Crowd|clones himself a thousandfold]] using the Kero Ball. After various hijinks, the clones start to fade. Kululu gives a [[Techno Babble]] explanation, but when told by Natsumi to "use words real people understand," he gets down to the point: if they don't destroy all the clones, then the Kero Ball will overload and all the Keroros, including the original, will disappear.

* This applied to the [[DC Universe]] [[Pre -Crisis|before the first Crisis]]. If a character traveled to a time where he or she already existed, it (the version not belonging to that time) would become an invisible, unheard, ineffectual phantom until itthey stepped out of that moment in time. Note that back then, even if characters were allowed to "meet themselves" [[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act|history could ''not'' be changed,]] so it was pointless anyway.

** [[Superman]]'s childhood friend Pete Ross, of all people, found a way around this. He was [[Fighting Your Friend|furious at Superman]] at the time (he blamed Superman for his son getting kidnapped by aliens; long story), and wanted a way to fight him. So he got aholdhold of some [[Applied Phlebotinum|phlebotinum]] that let him [[Body Snatcher|swap minds]] with Supes's younger self, [[Superboy]], and then returned to the present in Superboy's body, to duke it out with adult Supes. It turns out the Only One Me rule only applies to your ''mind'' being in two places at once, not your body. This actually makes a degree of sense, since even if you travel back to before your birth or after your death, the matter that makes up your body should still be around somewhere, and yet you only appear as a phantom iifif you travel within your own lifetime.

** Some early [[Silver Age]] ''[[Superman]]'' stories (&and one ''[[Justice League of America|Justice League]]'' tale) used the idea that if Superman traveled within his own lifetime the earlier version would take his place in the present. So if Superman traveled to when he was Superbaby, Superbaby would appear in the present while Superman was in the past.

* In ''[[Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja|Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja]]'', it is impossible for a person to be in two places at once. This causes one character to spontaneously combust when she returns to the past, as she arrives at the same time she's being born.

* In [[Connie Willis]]'s ''[[Blackout]] ''/ ''All Clear'', a time traveler ''has'' to return before other times that he visited—his arrival then is his "deadline". An important plot point.