Jump to content

Terminator Twosome: Difference between revisions

Terminator Twosome (view source)

Revision as of 03:48, 8 April 2014

415 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Mass update links)
m (Mass update links)
Line 4:
Can also be thought of as [[Evil Counterpart]] [[Recycled in Space|IN TIME!]] If it does not overlap with [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], it will instead overlap with [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right]]: In this case, the historical event in question goes as it originally did in the "good" timeline, and is averted in the "bad" timeline.
 
Named, of course, for the [[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]] movies, wherein a [[Killer Robot|robotic superassassin]] that [[Ridiculously Human Robot|looks like a normal human being]] is sent back in time to pre-emptively kill the future leader of the human resistance in a [[Robot War]]. [[Time Paradox|Paradox schmaradox!]] Compare [[Scry vs. Scry]], where it's oracles doing this with clairvoyance.
{{examples}}
 
== Anime ==
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima (Manga)|Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has a complex version of this: A [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] from the future goes back to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], bringing her to the storyline's present. Unfortunately, her goals would cause major trouble for the main characters ([[Bad Ending|turning into an ermine can put a crimp in anyone's plans]]), and she sends them a week forward in time to a future in which she's already won. Good thing Negi can go back in time too...
* ''[[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Dragon Ball]] Z'': Cell and Trunks, although they come from different [[Alternate Timeline|timelines]]. Trunks had no idea who Cell was, and Cell killed the Trunks of his timeline before going to the past.
 
 
Line 25:
 
== Film ==
* ''[[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]]'', obviously.
** In the first movie, a robot is sent back to kill Sarah Connor before she even gives birth to John Connor, and a [[Badass Normal]] human is sent back to protect her.
** In the second and third movies, a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting]] robot is sent back to kill John Connor, either as a child, or shortly before the onset of the [[Robot War]]. Each time, a reprogrammed robot like the evil one in the first movie is sent back to protect him.
*** In the third film, because John Connor cannot be located, the T-X is instead sent after who will become John Connor's top lieutenants and wife. Finding John Connor was just a bonus.
*** Ignore the [[Fridge Logic]] about not being able to send a second terminator into the events of the first movie!
** The comic crossover with [[RoboCop (Film)|Robocop]] written by [[Frank Miller]] had a human sent back to kill the former Alex Murphy before he could grant Skynet sentience, and a Terminator sent back to protect Robocop by any means necessary -- whether he wanted it or not.
** In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', another evil robot is sent back to kill John Connor as a teenager, and a reprogrammed robot who [[Robot Girl|looks like a cute waif of a girl]] is sent back to protect him. Over the course of the series, other robots and human resistance fighters are also sent back.
*** They even have conflicts between the many terminators sent back, if their tasks conflict with one another. For example, a terminator is sent to kill and replace Special Agent James Ellison. The attempt is interrupted when Cromartie, a terminator sent to find and kill John Connor, saves Ellison and destroys the other robot. When asked why by Ellison, Cromartie simply says that Ellison will lead it to the Connors. Not under duress but because Ellison is looking for them himself.
Line 36:
* In one of the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies, when Doctor Evil returns, Austin Powers himself is unfrozen to deal with him.
** The first sequel plays it straight, with Austin following Evil into the past.
* Likewise, ''Time After Time'' has [[HGH. G. Wells]] traveling into the future in pursuit of Jack the Ripper.
* ''[[Time Cop]]'' features [[Jean Claude Van Damme]] as, well, a Timecop who travels to the past to apprehend criminals who threaten to change the timeline.
* ''[[Trancers]]'': When an evil psychic goes back in time to present day Los Angeles, Jack Deth is sent back to stop him.
* ''[[Captain America (1990 film)]]'' with [[Captain America]] and the [[Red Skull]] being revived in the future.
* Happens in ''[[Back to Thethe Future (Filmfilm)|Back to The Future]] Part II'', when Marty and Doc travel back to 1955 to undo Old Biff's tampering with the timeline.
* At the end of ''[[Two Thousand and Nine2009 Lost Memories (Film)|Two Thousand and Nine Lost Memories]]'', Saigo and Sakamoto end up in the past struggling to avoid or ensure the assassination of Ito Hirobumi.
 
 
== Literature ==
* In ''[[The Apocalypse Troll]]'' by [[David Weber]] (of ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' fame), an alien-created [[Omnicidal Maniac|cyborg-modified human]] is sent back in time to destroy humanity before they develop FTL space travel. A human space-naval officer also goes back in time to stop it. Also somewhat of a subversion, as it started as two entire [[Standard Sci-Fi Fleet]] battle groups fighting both before and after the actual time travel, but each side only had a single survivor left after all the nukes finished flying so this trope still applies.
* In ''[[The Draka|Drakon]]'' by [[S.M. Stirling]], a [[Nietzsche Wannabe|genetically engineered superhuman]] [[Dark Action Girl|woman]] accidentally travels through a wormhole from an alternate future back to a world resembling our own present time, and promptly begins trying to find a way to re-open the wormhole and bring through a conquering army of more genetic supermen. A lone [[Hollywood Cyborg]] human is also sent back through a similar wormhole to stop her.
* In the ''[[Belisarius Series]]'' by Eric Flint and [[David Drake]], two artificial intelligences from opposite sides of a far-future war get sent back to the early middle ages, one to try and alter the timeline so the evil side wins the future war, the other to try and stop the first one, via recruiting local [[Badass Normal]] allies. A semi-subversion, since both sides are attempting to change the timeline. Indeed, both ''rely'' on massively altering the cultural and technological evolution of the world; they just each want history to evolve in a different direction. This is because, after the changes already made by the "bad" AI, the timeline has already been irrevocably changed, so the "good" AI needs to insure that the right culture comes out on top.
* [[Harlan Ellison]]'s ''[[The Outer Limits (TV)|The Outer Limits]]'' episode "Demon with a Glass Hand" may have created this trope. In fact, the producers of the first ''[[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]]'' movie had to pay a settlement to him following a lawsuit.
** Well, sort of. While "Demon with a Glass Hand" is recognized as one of the inspirations for Terminator the settlement was actually over claims that Cameron had ripped off another Ellison Outer Limits episode, "Soldier", which also fits this trope.
* The [[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Night Watch|Night Watch]]'' features Sam Vimes and a criminal both [[Lightning Can Do Anything|accidentally going back in time]], and Sam Vimes has to stop him from changing history for the worse - while wondering whether he can morally allow history to run its course when it means innocent people dying that could be saved if he used his knowledge from the future to make a few changes of his own. {{spoiler|He finally decides to make the changes, though these turn out to be entirely necessary to counteract those of his nemesis and arrive at broadly the same present they left.}}
* Used with a ridiculously complex plot in ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]][[Colon Cancer|: Megamorphs 3: Elfangor's Secret.]]'' In brief, a human (John Berryman) who is mind-controlled by an [[Alien Invasion|Alien Invader]] (Visser 4) gets a time machine, and the heroes (4 human teenagers, a human-brained hawk, and an alien, each of whom can change into animals) follow him through time. As part of some elaborate treaty involving [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|god-like beings]], the heroes become [[I Will Fight Some More Forever|immortal]] after {{spoiler|Jake is shot with a musket while Washington is crossing the Delaware. Washington dies as well, thanks to Berryman/Visser 4 tipping off the British.}} Because of Visser 4's influence on time, the course of history is changed, to the point that in World War II, {{spoiler|Nazis are the good guys and the British still hold slaves. The heroes were not aware of this while at Normandy, and neither was Visser 4. The protagonists' fighting for the British at Normandy brings a British victory, dooming the world to slavery.}} After much debate about the ethics of changing the course of time once more, the heroes decide to {{spoiler|go back in time and prevent John Berryman's birth, stopping the entire sorry situation in the first place and saving Jake.}}
* The ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''Imzadi'' has an aging Riker trying to change the past {{spoiler|back to what it was}}, with Data trying to keep it as it was {{spoiler|not knowing that it was changed in the first place}}. When the characters realize this at the end and ask the Guardian of Forever why it didn't say so sooner (potentially saving them all a lot of trouble and/or [[Angst]]), it replies (literally) "[[You Didn't Ask]]."
** In the ''Strange New Worlds'' story "God, Fate or Fractals"'' it's Wesley Crusher versus a pair of Temporal Investigations agents.
* ''Dies Irae'' - Heljanita wants to change the past, and Darkscar wants to unchange it.
* ''Rebel in Time'' by Harry Harrison. A racist colonel steals the design of the Sten submachine gun and travels back in time to change the course of [[The American Civil War]]. He is pursued by another officer, whose task isn't made easier by the fact that he's black.
* In [[Tim Powers]]' ''[[The Anubis Gates]]'', a millionaire discovers the existence of time portals and uses them to visit the past. A scholar brought along for his historical know-how discovers the millionaire's nasty ulterior motives, and must stop both him ''and'' the villains who'd opened the time portals in the first place. Subverted twice, in that 1) the millionaire isn't looking to change ''documented'' history, but to become a power behind the throne; and 2) the historian isn't sent back to preserve anything, and initially is only looking for a way to get back home.
* ''For King And Country'', by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans, features {{spoiler|what seems to be}} a [[Terminator Twosome]] of an IRA agent traveling back to Arthurian times to change history in Ireland's favor or simply punish England, and a British soldier trying to stop it. They go all the way back to around 500 AD or so and share the bodies of people close to King Arthur. It seems like a [[Stable Time Loop]] and/or [[Tricked-Out Time]], but the ending is a little ambiguous. [[Meanwhile in Thethe Future]], their bodies remain in a comatose state while they are in the past.
* An unintentional example in a Russian novel, where two Russian cosmonauts somehow end up in the past during the decline of the Roman Empire. One of them gets captured by barbarians, while the other one ends up becoming a Roman legionnaire. Eventually, the latter becomes the primus pilus (senior centurion) of a Roman Legion and is determined not to let the Empire fall, while the other manages to become the chieftain of the Germanic barbarians who captured him. You can see where this is heading.
 
Line 66:
* ''[[Time Trax]]'' is a variation. The hero was sent back into the past to retrieve several escaped criminals who escaped to the past with the help of a [[Mad Scientist]]. This trope applies since the [[Mad Scientist]] himself also escaped into the past, and several times his schemes in the past threaten to change the timeline, and the hero must stop him.
* This was the central idea of ''[[Tru Calling]]'', though by the time it was revealed that this was the case and the conflict between Tru (change the past to save people) and her counterpart (keep this past the same and let people die) properly introduced the show was on the verge of being cancelled, so the idea was never fully developed.
* A major plot in the first seasons of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' was the Temporal Cold War, in which various future factions used agents (some of them sent from other eras, others natives of the 22nd) to try to manipulate "historical" events in their favor.
** The plot of the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode ''Trials and Tribble-ations''. The villain of the [[Star Trek: theThe Original Series|TOS]] episode ''The Trouble With Tribbles'' attempts to assassinate Captain Kirk in order to alter the outcome of that episode, and our heroes need to stop him.
* ''[[Mirai Sentai Timeranger]]'' and its adaptation ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'' are about mutant criminals coming back from the year 3000, and the [[Time Police]] right behind to stop them.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Den -O]]'' features Imagin going into the past to wreak havoc with Kamen Rider Den-O time travelling to stop them.
* In ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' episode 4 season 3 "All Halliwell's Eve", the sisters are send back in time to save one of their ancestors; at the same time, team evil is sending back their main agent to prevent their birth.
* The whole concept of the oft-mentioned Time War in the new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', with the Time Lords themselves waging war against a galaxy-spanning Imperial Dalek fleet. The war was so big, most other species were too technologically underdeveloped to even notice.
** On the other hand, this makes for an incredibly depressing [[Downer Ending]] in one of the [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] audios, ''Flip Flop''...
* Series two of ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' becomes this, with [[Big Bad|Martin Summers]] trying to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]] from his perspective, but is actually [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right]] for everyone else. Alex decides that acting as the [[Time Police]] will enable her to [[Trapped in Thethe Past|get home.]]
* ''[[The 4400]]'' were abducted by people from the future and returned to the present to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], while members of the anti-promicin conspiracy known as The Marked were sent back by a different future faction to thwart them.
* The ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "The Song Remains The Same" ultimately turns out to be a Terminator Threesome. First, Anna goes back in time with the intention of averting the apocalypse by killing John and Mary Winchester before Dean and Sam can be born. Sam and Dean, with Castiel's help, follow her in order to save their parents from Anna ''and'' [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong|from their fates in the original timeline]]. Finally, {{spoiler|[[Archangel Michael]]}} goes back to ensure that history takes its established course.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* This is what happens in a [[Up to Eleven|standard two-player game]] in ''[[Achron]]''.
* ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (Video Game)|Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]: Explorers of Time and Darkness'' plays this about as straight as you can get. {{spoiler|Grovyle and the human go back in time to prevent Temporal Tower from collapsing and bringing about the [[Bad Future]], and Dusknoir follows them back to put a stop to them since he worked for Primal Dialga.}}
** However {{spoiler|as said human has amnesia, and Grovyle [[Can't Spit It Out]], you spend about half the game helping Dusknoir instead.}}
* In ''[[TimeshiftTimeShift]]'', the [[Big Bad]] is a disgruntled scientist who uses a time-traveling suit to travel to the past and use his [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|vast scientific knowledge]] to [[Take Over the World]] and establish a fascist dystopia. The player is a second scientist, also equipped with a time-traveling suit, who follows the first scientist through time in order to stop him.
* ''[[Blaz Blue]]'': {{spoiler|The Black Beast and Hakumen are both pulled into the past by the same incident, setting up the [[Groundhog Day Loop]] that plays out repeatedly in the game.}}
* Inverted like ''crazy'' by ''[[BrutalBrütal Legend (Video Game)|Brutal Legend]]''. {{spoiler|The evil "Emperor" (actually Empress, but demons don't differentiate apparently) Succoria is sent forwards in time, along with humanity's greatest warrior Riggnarok, who has sworn to slay her and is effectively her time-travel stowaway. When she reaches the future, she suffers a [[Villainous BSOD]] when she realises that humanity wins. Instead of slaying her, Riggnarok begins to feel the inklings of pity, and, well, the road gets lonely...}}
* Played with both ways in ''[[Dark Cloud (Video Game)|Dark Cloud]] 2'': Emperor Griffon, who resides {{spoiler|10 thousand}} years into the past, is doing battle with [[La Résistance]] 100 years into the ''future.'' In order to eliminate them, he sends out his [[The Dragon|agent]] into the ''present'', to destroy his enemies' settlements and erase them from existence. Enter [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|Monica]], from 100 years in the future, whose [[Cosmic Keystone]] allows her to travel back to the present. With the help of the present-day protagonist, Max, she restores her allies' "Origin Points" and preserves future history (and, in one notable case, improves upon it.) Of course, Griffon's agent Gaspard will try to thwart their efforts....
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages]]'' has Veran, Nayru, Link, and Ralph, in a bizarre time-traveling quadrangle of [[Big Bad]], [[MacGuffin Girl]], the hero, and [[The Scrappy]].
** Also happens in towards the very end of {{spoiler|''[[Skyward Sword]]''}}, where {{spoiler|Link and Groose follow Ghirahim back in time in order to both save Zelda and prevent the resurrection of the Demon King Demise}}.
* ''[[Earthbound]]'' displays this right at the beginning of the game. [[No-Nonsense Nemesis|Giygas chose to stop Ness while he was still weak by sending a Starman Jr. back in time to kill him directly]]. Luckily for Ness, a time-travelling alien named Buzz Buzz found him first to protect him. Unfortunately, Buzz Buzz dies shortly afterward. In true Terminator fashion, it is this time-travel attack that kicks off the plot and sets Ness on the path to defeat Giygas.
* The central premise of ''[[The Journeyman Project (Video Gameseries)|The Journeyman Project]]''.
* Also the premise of the Inform game ''[[Jigsaw]]'', although neither side is really in the wrong.
* In ''Millennia: Altered Destinies'', the player is given a timeship by a hooded alien to guide four races in the Echelon Galaxy in order to stop the expansion of the evil Microids. One of the major obstacles is an [[Evil Counterpart|alternate version of the player]] recruited by the Microids to sabotage the player's work. Like the player, he cannot be killed.
* ''[[Time Hollow (Visual Novel)|Time Hollow]]'' plays a variation of this. Upon learning that the past has changed, the protagonist tries to undo the antagonist's interferences in time through time portals. The biggest conflict is {{spoiler|trying to save the antagonist's mother, who sent herself a letter in time to commit a form of suicide}}.
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As Portable (Video Game)|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As Portable]]: The Gears of Destiny'' has [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] Kyrie Florian jumping back in time to retrieve an artifact that could help her scientist father save their dying planet. [[Idiot Hero]] Amitie Florian then jumps back in time to stop her, since as said father mentioned, interfering with the time stream could lead to even worse consequences than the destruction of their evacuatable planet. {{spoiler|In addition, the both of them are also [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]]}}.
 
 
Line 102:
 
== Western Animation ==
* A two-episode arc from the '90s ''[[X-Men (Animationanimation)|X-Men]]'' cartoon involved Bishop traveling from the [[Bad Future]] to the present day, attempting to prevent the outbreak of a mutant plague. His actions backfire, however, and result in the deaths of the X-Men and the complete extinction (rather than just decimation) of mutants--so Cable comes from an ''even further'' future to stop Bishop.
** Cause the mutant plague or stop the mutant plague? Nah, Cable [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]].
** You've also got the more basic variety in most [[Time Travel]] episodes. First it's Bishop and Nimrod, then it's the Cable and Bishop thing, then it's Bishop and Fitzroy, then it's Shard and the various agents of Apocalypse (though they're from the present, Apocalypse is the version from Cable's future.) {{spoiler|In the end, the [[Bad Future]] is NOT prevented, but at least they always managed to stop those who'd make it any worse.}}
* Replace individual with faction and this was the plot of the third season of ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', when it turns out Megatron's plan to go back in time to destroy Optimus Prime didn't go as completely off the rails as initially thought.
* The second series of ''[[Gadget Boy and Heather]]'', "Gadget Boy's Adventures in history": Heroic trio versus four villains.
* In a variant on ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'', Warp from the far future is followed through a time-gate by Starfire from the present, and she winds up hunting for him [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] [[Bad Future]].
* One episode of ''[[Megas XLR]]'' revolves around Gorrath's second-in-command's plan to kill a current-day ancestor of Kiva, as Kiva and Jamie try to protect her.
** The show's main plot has shades of this as well: Kiva and MEGAS are sent back in time (further back than expected) and the Glorft commander followed her.
* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Superman the Animated Series]]'' has a crossover with the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (Comic Book)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' where Cosmo Boy, Saturn Girl and Chameleon Boy protect a young Clark Kent from a time-travelling Brainiac. Clark winds up [[Hurl It Into the Sun|teleporting Brainiac into the sun.]]
* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' did this with a [[Future Badass]] version of Jade and [[Big Bad|Shendu's]] [[Kid From the Future]], Drago, in ''J2''. Future! Jade's arrival was even accompanied by Terminator-style music.
 
 
== Real Life ==
* In the now-defunct ''[[Back to The Future (Franchise)/Ride|Back to The Future]]: The Ride'' formerly at [[Universal Studios]], Doc Brown sent YOU back (and forward) in time to prevent Biff from messing up the timeline.
 
{{reflist}}
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/881425"
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.
More information