Stable Time Loop: Difference between revisions

* The premise of ''[[12 Monkeys]]'' is that [[Time Travel]] cannot alter history in any way -- whatever you go back and do in the past, you've always gone back and done in the past. Cole remembers that as a kid, he saw {{spoiler|his own death}}, which later happens just as he recalled it. The researcher (and the other [[Time Travel|time travelers]]) went back from 2035 to 1996 for one reason only -- to gather information about the original virus (which had greatly mutated by their own time) of [[The Plague]] that had decimated humanity in 1996, so that a cure could be developed in 2035. The near-destruction of humanity in 1996 will always happen; the 'happy ending' is {{spoiler|that humanity gains the chance to recover four decades later}}.

* ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home]]'' does this with the invention of transparent aluminum.

''Scotty:'' Why? how do you know he didn't invent the thing! }}

** In the [[Novelization]] of ''IV'', Scotty says that he ''did'' invent transparent aluminum, and that it was ''necessary'' to show him how.

** The same thing also happens when Kirk sells the glasses he got from McCoy for some needed money. He even lampshades it.

'''Kirk''': And they will be again. That's the beauty of it. }}

* According to Miller in ''[[Repo Man]]'', ''all of human history'' is a [[Stable Time Loop]]. Of course, he doesn't [[The Schizophrenia Conspiracy|seem the most reliable source on these things]], although the [[THC Theater|rather drug-fueled ending]] makes it seem a bit more likely.

*** This is fairly common in the [[Historical Domain Character]] episodes. Donna gives [[Agatha Christie]] the ideas for [[Miss Marple]] and ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]''; Amy inspires [[Vincent van Gogh]] to paint his famous painting of sunflowers.

** In "Time," the second part of the 2011 Red Nose Day comedy special, we get three of these in as many minutes, two of which play this trope straight (Amy doesn't understand what her future self said, but still says it herself, even though the Doctor doesn't even explain it to her, and the Doctor waits for his future self to tell him which lever to use despite having no idea despite the time loop being a few seconds long) and the third of which justifies it:

Future Amy, flirtatiously: [[Screw Yourself|Hi.]] }}

** As of ''A Good Man Goes To War,'' the Doctor's ''name'' turns out to be one of these. The meaning of the word was apparently already established when he chose it, but due to centuries of crosstime adventuring, it turns out 'doctor' means healer ''because of him.'' However, in some places, [[Beware the Nice Ones|it means 'mighty warrior' because of him.]]

** An even bigger one occurs in "He's Our You" and "Whatever Happened, Happened": {{spoiler|Ben torments and manipulates Sayid and others in the future. Sayid then travels back in time and shoots 12 year-old Ben, attempting to prevent Ben's later misdeeds. Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet, in order to save Ben, take him to the Others. This leads to Ben becoming the ruthless individual who later torments them, and who causes their time travel.}}

** According to [[Mr. Exposition|Daniel Faraday]], this is how time travel in the ''Lost''-verse works, except for Desmond for some damn reason.

** In yet another loop in the fifth season, in "The Variable", {{spoiler|''Faraday himself'' is killed by his mother when he travels back in time to before he was born. His mother therefore ''knows'', throughout Faraday's life, that she killed (the future) him, yet she accepts this "sacrifice" and uses every opportunity to strictly direct him along his destiny.}}

** Also in the fifth season, {{spoiler|Richard gives a compass to Locke, who then travels through time for a while and gives the compass to Richard in the 1950s.}} Where did the compass come from? Who manufactured it? Where did it go? Also shouldn't it age into dust? Perhaps it did age into dust, and Richard then created a new one which he gave to Locke and which became the same compass that had aged into dust.

*** Equally as short is [http://faultylogic.comicgenesis.com/d/20071006.html this] Faulty Logic page, on why you shouldn't rob your future self.

* [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/09/19/episode-1174-oh-thats-what/ Here's another] ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|8-Bit Theater]]'' example. In a previous comic, {{spoiler|Thief stole his class change from his future self}}. In the linked strip, the other three Light Warriors {{spoiler|get their class changes reversed while fighting Sarda.}} Thief remarks on how that "worked out okay." Cue {{spoiler|his class change getting stolen by his past self.}}

'''Sarda''': What you deserve is ''so much worse''. }}

** [[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]] is revealed to be one ''giant'' time loop. Here's how it goes; {{spoiler|A child named Sarda loses his family and is tramautized- several times- by Black Mage and the Light Warriors. Sarda grows up to be the most powerful wizard in existence, and uses his power to go back to the beginning of the universe to become its master and prevent the Light warriors from existing. When he gets there, a White Mage beat him to it and now the universe obeys her commands, with Sarda stuck in the past. As the world forms around him, Sarda vows to keep White Mage from going back by putting her into a pocket dimension- which turns out to be the universe's birth. Meanwhile, Sarda decides to send the Light Warriors on quests so that they become [[Blatant Lies|heroes of legend]], and when they're at their strongest, destroy them for added humiliation, and in doing so they cause many of the trauma kid Sarda experienced.}} As Red Mage points out, Sarda is just as responsible for his suffering as they are, as he could have stopped them beforehand. He retorts with;

'''Black Mage:''' Okay, I have a theory. It's called: '''I never knew it possible to care less about time travel.''' }}

* The Space theme of ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' was stuck in one complex [[Stable Time Loop]] in which the characters constantly revenge their own actions to themselves. It ended taking up most of the other themes, and (as expected) ended in a [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]] [http://irregularwebcomic.net/2166.html at the end of that year].

** See the [http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Weird_Time_Shit Weird Time Shit] page on the MSPA Wiki (massive spoilers). The most prominent examples being {{spoiler|John receiving the same bunny for his birthday thrice,}} and {{spoiler|an ectobiology session where John basically creates himself, his friends, and their guardians, who are sent to Earth at different points of time by meteor-defense-portal-displacement.}}

*** Best of all, the latter actually leads to the former. After {{spoiler|Dave gives John the first bunny, John gives it to baby Rose, who fixes it with her sewing needles thirteen years into the future and gives it back to John, who then gives it to baby Jade. Jade has it taken from her accidentally by an [[Alternate Universe]] version of ''her grandfather'', named Jake. He then fixes it up again, and tunes it up to be incredibly dangerous, before sending it back to her. It gets waylaid on the way, allowing [[Punch Clock Villain|Jack Noir]] to take it and use the Black Queens [[Ring of Power|Ring of Orbs Fourfold]] horribly mess up John's session. The bunny eventually gets back to John a third time, [[Big Damn Heroes|just in time to]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|save him from]] [[Big Bad|Jack Noir]], but not before things become so irreparably damaged that they need to ''restart their universe'', through an [[Apocalypse How|apocalypse of at ''least'' Class X-4]] to fix it.}} And best of all? The {{spoiler|restarted time line is ''the one Jake comes from''.}}

** {{spoiler|The Green Sun, born of the destruction of two universes. Yet the power of the Green Sun is what destroyed them.}}

*** To clarify: {{spoiler|Doc Scratch, a being powered by the Green Sun, set forth a plan that would end in Earth and Alternia being destroyed. Earth was destroyed by the Sovereign Slayer, another being powered by the Green Sun, while Doc Scratch personally manipulated events on Alternia to lead to the destruction of the universe. The circumstantially simultaneous destructions activated the Tumor, a giant bomb that, when activated, will create the Green Sun. Ironically, the people who put the Tumor in place thought they were trying to destroy the sun...}}

* Shelly of ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' managed to take advantage of time loops and places where time flows in different directions to arrange the [[Vision Quest]] gone wrong in her childhood that had a huge influence on her character.

* Lampshaded in [http://omega_key.comicdish.com/index.php?pageID=100 The Omega Key] when the characters discover that they themselves, via time travel, were responsible for the destruction that they thought they were wrongly accused of.

* This probably happens in [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040126 this] ''[[Girl Genius]]'' strip. The time window that Bang sees the first time happens after the second one from the point of view of the characters in the window. Gil calls Bang a maniac in the first one, probably because she pointed a gun on them in the second one, which she did because "earlier" he insulted her.

* ''[[Faulty Logic]]'': Fox travels to the future to steal a comic idea from his future self. When he gets back, his past self snatches the page out of hand and disappears.

** Then there was the time he built a time machine for the sole purpose of going back in time to stop himself from building a time machine, because [[Logic Bomb|he knows he'll end up building a time machine and misuse it]].

 

* Time travel in ''[[Gargoyles]]'' (via the Phoenix Gate) can't be used to change the past - no matter what you do, [[You Already Changed the Past]]. But if the plot requires it, ''you can turn yourself into a god by means of a Stable Time Loop''. The Avalon arc includes the flashback antagonist known as the Archmage in a classic bootstrap scenario: he travels back in time, saves himself from his canonical death at the bottom of a cliff, spends a day jumping through time handing his past self an absurd amount of firepower, ending the day by sending his past self off to repeat the process.

** [[Magnificent Bastard]] David Xanatos uses this to his advantage in "Vows". When pulled to 975 AD, he gives the Illuminati a coin to hold onto for one thousand years, and then deliver it to a young David Xanatos. The coin wasn't worth much in the past, but by the time it reaches him in 1975, it's worth twenty grand, which is the foundation for his fortune. He also gave them a letter to hold onto for 1,020 years, so he'd get it precisely one week before the episode began, telling [[Write Back to the Future|himself exactly what to do.]] He makes a direct [[Lampshade Hanging]] of the trope when Goliath arrives to rescue him.

'''Xanatos''': But you won't. Because you didn't. Time travel's funny that way. }}

** Goliath found out that history is immutable to his dismay in the same episode. He tried to convince teen Demona not to turn evil. It worked, but only temporarily.