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.

 

== Anime and 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...

* [[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 ==

* 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.

* At the end of ''[[2009: Lost Memories|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 ==

* [[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]]."

* 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 ==

* ''[[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 A's 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]]}}.

 

== 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 ==

* ''[[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 ==

 

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[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]

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

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]