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Ontological Inertia: Difference between revisions
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Used in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]''.
** And in the ''Kai'' finale, {{spoiler|averted entirely}}.
* A defining trope of ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]''. When a person's existence is eaten by a Rinne, they are gone but replaced by a "Torch", who acts as a shock absorber; they look the same, and even have the original's memories. As their flame burns out over time, their presence and impact on the world lessens - they become apathetic and do little, people overlook them - until they disappear completely. When this happens, no one remembers them, and it is as though they never had existed, ever. [[Fridge Horror|This happens all the time.]]
▲== Films ==
* Explored in the 2002 version of ''[[The Time Machine]]'', with the time traveler's fiancée Emma acting as fate bait.
** It's a singularly interesting example. If she doesn't die, he doesn't invest the time and effort into creating the time machine. Her death CANNOT be changed, or he CANNOT go back to change. Down to the particular time limit (read: that very night, no matter what he tries). It's not like going back in time and stepping on a mosquito, the flow of time CANNOT continue if she does not die. Paradox, anyone?
*** Of course, all that's really important is that he believes she died. [[Take a Third Option|He could go back in time, fake her death and bring her into the present with him]].
* In the first three Terminator movies, good terminator androids, bad terminator androids, and one human are sent back in time to either prevent the upcomming apocalypse or kill off the future leader of the human rebellion. As each successive movie shows, attempts to change the future by either side will inevitably fail as long as there exists a demand for more Terminator movies.
== Literature ==
* The plot of Terry Pratchett's ''[[
** To clarify, even the History Monks aren't sure why the Disc's history seems to keep the same general shape in spite of various things messing with time. Some ideas include the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]] (the [[Trope Namer]]) and the Historical Imperative, which appears to be equal parts this trope and [[Incredibly Lame Pun|a pun on Kant]].
*** The ''Discworld'' books also bring up the
** Played and justified in exactly so many words in Terry Pratchett's ''[[Mort]]''. As Death's assistant, Mort attempts to {{spoiler|save a princess from assassination}}, changing the predestined course of history. Historical inertia pushes back, {{spoiler|creating a shrinking bubble reality the heroes must escape from}}.
* In ''To Say Nothing of the Dog'' by Connie Willis, it is discovered that any change that someone tries to make in the past will be automatically rectified by the time-stream. For instance, if a bucket is removed from a historically significant bucket brigade, it will be replaced with a convenient barrel. By the end of the book, it turns out that {{spoiler|all of the hero's misadventures through time were a direct result of a change somebody from the distant future will have made in the past.}}
** More than that, sometimes the time stream simply won't allow changes to be made. People who tried to go back and take out Hitler were deposited far enough away (time-wise) that they couldn't do it.
* In Poul Anderson's ''Time Patrol'' series of short stories/novellas, there is a principle of "temporal inertia" which acts like this. It is very difficult to make substantial changes to the time-line, since most likely subsequent events will coalesce in a way that maintains the overall historical status quo. However, the flip side of the principle is that once changes ''are'' made to the time-line, it is similarly very difficult to undo those changes and return the time-line to its original status.
* ''[[Lost]]'' plays with this in Season 5. For example, when handling a nuke, Daniel assures them that it can't explode because the island still exists in the future they came from.▼
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* [[Lost]] plays with this in Season 5. For example, when handling a nuke, Daniel assures them that it can't explode because the island still exists in the future they came from.
* [[The Legendary Adventures Of Hercules]] had an episode where they were worried about how their time travel might affect the present, but Hercules assured them that Time would correct itself, so nothing would change.
* In the final episode of ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'', when [[Big Bad]] [[Kamen Rider X|Apollo Geist]] is defeated, his forcible merger and destruction of the multiverse continues unabated. In fact, if anything it actually speeds up. This leads to Decade receiving a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] speech from his predecessors.
== Tabletop Games ==
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[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]▼
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▲[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]
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