Terminator Twosome: Difference between revisions

 

Named, of course, for the [[Terminator (franchise)|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}}

* ''[[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]] 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.

 

== Comic Books ==

** Slightly less directly, Bishop originally came back in time hunting a group of time-traveling criminals, but then decided to use his new location to protect the X-Men and prevent his home timeline. The criminals he was hunting don't seem overly concerned with this.

*** He only joined the X-Men after he had killed off almost all the criminals he came back to find. The leader of the survivors was a recurring villain for several years.

* [[Iron Man]] and [[Doctor Doom]] for some reason do this often. They wound up in Camelot once, and another time they inverted the trope by traveling to the future (after Merlin has awaken and King Arthur has reincarnated). Often, though they end up [[Take a Third Option|taking a third option]] and working together to get back.

** And again in Bendis' Mighty Avengers. It helps that both Doom and Stark have ''nothing'' to gain from changing anything in the specific past periods they enter, and both would rather keep the present they have. Seeing as it's dangerous to fuck with reality and all that.

 

== Film ==

*** 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!

** 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.

** The first sequel plays it straight, with Austin following Evil into the past.

* Likewise, ''Time After Time'' has [[H. G. Wells]] traveling into the future in pursuit of Jack the Ripper.

* ''[[Trancers]]'': When an evil psychic goes back in time to present day Los Angeles, Jack Deth is sent back to stop him.

* Happens in ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]] Part II'', when Marty and Doc travel back to 1955 to undo Old Biff's tampering with the timeline.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Harlan Ellison]]'s ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' episode "Demon with a Glass Hand" may have created this trope. In fact, the producers of the first ''[[Terminator (franchise)|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.

* Used with a ridiculously complex plot in ''[[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: The 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]]."

* ''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.

* 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.

 

* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]''. See above under "Film".

* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'', in later seasons, features an [[Evil Counterpart|Evil Leaper]] who tries to undo the positive changes in the past wrought by Sam Beckett.

* ''[[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 ==

** However {{spoiler|as said human has amnesia, and Grovyle [[Can't Spit It Out]], you spend about half the game helping Dusknoir instead.}}

* In ''[[TimeShift]]'', 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.

* Inverted like ''crazy'' by ''[[Brütal Legend|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]] 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}}.

* The central premise of ''[[The Journeyman Project (series)|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]]'' 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}}.

 

== Web Comics ==

* The "Surreptitious Machinations" arc of [[General Protection Fault]] draws heavily from The Terminator, taking place in a future where Empress Trudy has conquered the world, and where {{spoiler|Nick and Ki's son}} Todd goes back in time to prevent the future from coming about, while the Empress herself goes back to stop him. Interestingly enough, it's revealed at the end that {{spoiler|only by the Empress' informing her past self could the bad future come to be (which would only happen if the bad future already exists, creating a time paradox), which reverses their roles}}. A Terminator comes back to the present to deal with Todd, but fails early on and serves as a way to {{spoiler|frame Fooker for murder}}.

* ''[[SSDD]]'' has this with two factions, the Anarchists who are trying to orchestrate the past to result in an economic collapse leading to their rise in power, and Dr. Cook's people who are trying to avert that. Cook's group has one cybernetically-enhanced [[Super Soldier]] (Tessa), while the Anarchists send a series of robots and clones.

 

== Western Animation ==

** 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.}}

* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series|Superman the Animated Series]]'' has a crossover with the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|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]]'' 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 ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]

[[Category:It's Not Porn, It's an Index]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]