Time Travel Romance: Difference between revisions

Time travel provides all kinds of possibilities for a romance arc: some of them comic, some of them tragic, and some of them bittersweet. As a comedy trope, time travel can result in a culture clash between two otherwise suited people, since different times have different manners and mores. More dramatically, a time travel plot may force a protagonist to make a decision between [[Your Universe or Mine?|returning home or staying in a different era]]. Time travel can also serve as a force which reluctantly separates the couple, if one must return to his or her original time. Time travel can sometimes result in the ultimate [[Long -Distance Relationship]], if the couple tries to make it work despite the time barrier.

In some cases, [[Love Transcends Spacetime]], and a couple separated by time are able to be reunited simply through [[The Power of Love]]. Alas, this is not always the case with a [['''Time Travel Romance]]'''. Sometimes separated lovers are separated forever. In other cases, they have to go through [[Earn Your Happy Ending|a great deal of effort]] (using magic or science) to be reunited.

Of course, separation isn't the only possible source of romantic drama in a time travel plot. A [['''Time Travel Romance]]''' may lead to [[Time Travel Escape]], if the object of affection needs to be rescued from a historically-necessary but unfortunate death. Love across time may also lead to [[My Own Grandpa]], which could be played for either comedy or drama.

** At least until the end, where {{spoiler|the Bone Eater's Well stops working and they are torn apart for three years. When the well starts working, Kagome has [[Your Universe or Mine?|to choose]] between the Warring States Era and her own time, and obviously decides [[I Choose to Stay|to stay]].}}

* ''[[El -Hazard: theThe Magnificent World]]'' has [[Robot Girl|Ifurita]] getting sent back in time thousands of years and taking [[The Slow Path]] to get back to the main character so he could go meet her for the first time. {{spoiler|Eventually he finds out how to [[Time Travel]] to her right after that point.}}

* ''[[Somewhere in Time (Film)|Somewhere in Time]]'' is all about this.

* ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lake_House_:The Lake House (film) |The Lake House]]'': Dr. Kate Forster and Alex Wyler fall in love via a trans-temporal mailbox.

* ''[[Star Trek IV: theThe Voyage Home]]'' gave us Kirk and [[Girl of the Week|Gillian Taylor]].

* ''[[The Time TravelersTraveler's Wife]]''

** ''[[Time Enough for Love]]'' features protagonist Lazarus Long traveling back thousands of years to visit his original family in 1917 Kansas City, Missouri. Along the way, he meets, falls in love with, sleeps with, and breaks his [[Masquerade]] to his mother. They are parted by [[World War OneI]] and him being MIA in combat, thanks to [[Love Makes You Dumb]].

* {{spoiler|Rachel Weintraub /}} Moneta and Kassad in [[Dan Simmons]]' [[Hyperion]]. Like [[Doctor Who (TV)|River Song]], Moneta travels in a different time stream than Kassad, but she keeps meeting him during important training of his early years training under FORCE (but when they first meet she is in her late twenties, he is younger), which causes him to fall in love with her. She, on the other hand, has been in love with him long before, as ''Rise of Endymion'' divulges and even sends him off with a goodbye kiss with the admonition to be on the look out for her as he returns to his own time, {{spoiler|after having dying in combat with the Shrike and being taken by Moneta into the Time Tombs. More detail on Kassad's paradoxes in the time stream in connexion with Moneta are delineated in more depth on the [[Hyperion]] page.}}

* There is a romance in [[Dinoverse (Literature)|Dinoverse]] like this. Time travel in that 'verse entails [[Intangible Time Travel|possessing the bodies of whatever's big at the time]], and a girl named Patience ends up in the body of a hulking carnivorous acrocanthosaur, soon befriending and then being attracted to a [[Amplified Animal Aptitude|bright native acro]] which she nicknames Green Knight or GK. Her host had made overtures to him before, but he hadn't been interested; he wanted ''Patience''. She had angst over how they could never be, since she didn't want to stay a dinosaur. He died trying to make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save one of her human friends - he failed - but it was okay, because he and the friend both ended [[Sharing a Body|up in the human's body]]. This meant that Patience and GK could be together after all! ...along with the friend. Strangely, all three parties were okay with this.

* This is part of the main premise of Diana Gabaldon's [[Outlander (Literaturenovel)|Outlander]] series.

* Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory in ''[[Count and Countess (Literature)|Count and Countess]]''.

* ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'' had the romance between Penny and Desmond, which was largely introduced during time-travel episodes.

* In ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' in the episode "The Girl In The Fireplace," the Doctor fell in love with Madame de Pompadour (you know, the French King's mistress) while they're separated by extreme [[Narnia Time]]. It verged on [[The Dulcinea Effect]] on his part, while she spent [[The Lost Lenore|the best part of her life in love with him]], {{spoiler|but they're separated at the end}}.

* James T. Kirk has another tragic example in the [[Star Trek: theThe Original Series]] episode "The City On The Edge Of Forever." Kirk is sent back to [[The Great Depression|Great Depression]] [[Big Applesauce|New York City]] through a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] [[Time Portal]]. There, he meets and falls in love with Edith Keeler, a kind-hearted, visionary shelter worker. The tragedy is that unless Keeler dies, [[Godwin's Law of Time Travel|the Nazis will win World War II]] and Starfleet will never exist. The punch is all the worse in the end, as Kirk has to personally intercede to prevent Dr. McCoy from saving Keeler's life.

* ''[[Professor Layton and Thethe Unwound Future]]'': {{spoiler|Claire}} and Layton have this going on. {{spoiler|Claire was thought to have}} died in an accident involving a time travel experiment, but she ended up {{spoiler|being sent ten years into the future instead.}} Unfortunately, as it was still experimental, this results in molecular instability, and they are ultimately forced to go back to their own time... in other words, {{spoiler|back to the time machine explosion that would kill her.}} [[Not So Stoic|Even Layton takes off his hat in tears.]]

{{quote| '''{{spoiler|Claire (JP)}}:''' "It appears my time is up, at last. It was nice to see you again. It ended so suddenly; my... [[Title Drop|last time travel]]."}}

* [[Playing Withwith a Trope|Played with in]] ''[[Fire Emblem: Awakening]]'', where {{spoiler|The Children Characters are all Time Travelers [[Time Travel Escape|who fled from a]] [[Bad Future]] where [[Omnicidal Maniac|Gimle destroyed the world]]... now for the most part, they cannot fall in love with the First Generation characters, averting this trope... until you realize they can fall for [[Player Character|MU]], which brings out this trope. Of course, add in the fact that none of them actually want to go back to their time... and the fact that it may be impossible anyway... and of course, nothing seems to explain [[Noodle Incident|Mark]].}}

* ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]''; Saber and Shirou. Saber is {{spoiler|[[King Arthur]]}}, while Shirou is from the modern era. This eventually leads to a rather [[Bittersweet Ending]], until the Realta Nua [[Updated Rerelease]] first made them [[Star-Crossed Lovers]], then [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|proof]] that [[Love Transcends Spacetime]] upon their (impossible) reunion.

* In ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', Supergirl falls in love with Brainiac 5 of the [[Legion of Super -Heroes]] when they go into the future, and she stays there to be with him when the rest of the heroes go back.

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