Timey-Wimey Ball: Difference between revisions
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* [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]] Saves the World'' features two overlapping timelines (one of which only has a temporary existence) ''and'' a loop. The lead character travels back in time to stop the Special Corps being removed from history, and manages to disrupt the enemy's plan. He then follows them further back in time, landing in an alternate history where Napoleon conquered Britain. He messes up the controls on the enemy time machine, and (after being rescued shortly before the alternate history disappears) follows them forward (but still long before his own time). He finds the villains (after a ''long'' time for them—so long they've forgotten everything except that he's the Enemy), but is unable to stop them; they travel back in time, and he's only saved by a time machine—allowing him to return to his own time—which he then sends back with the instructions for what he just did. {{spoiler|Finally, he's told not to worry that he didn't stop the villains; they've just traveled to the first place he met them, where they will then travel back and create an alternate history where Napoleon conquered Britain, before...}} |
* [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]] Saves the World'' features two overlapping timelines (one of which only has a temporary existence) ''and'' a loop. The lead character travels back in time to stop the Special Corps being removed from history, and manages to disrupt the enemy's plan. He then follows them further back in time, landing in an alternate history where Napoleon conquered Britain. He messes up the controls on the enemy time machine, and (after being rescued shortly before the alternate history disappears) follows them forward (but still long before his own time). He finds the villains (after a ''long'' time for them—so long they've forgotten everything except that he's the Enemy), but is unable to stop them; they travel back in time, and he's only saved by a time machine—allowing him to return to his own time—which he then sends back with the instructions for what he just did. {{spoiler|Finally, he's told not to worry that he didn't stop the villains; they've just traveled to the first place he met them, where they will then travel back and create an alternate history where Napoleon conquered Britain, before...}} |
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* In ''A Tale Of Time City'' by [[Diana Wynne Jones]], the titular city exists outside of the flow of history on the rest of the world. From this vantage point, the citizens see that history works like weather patterns—it shifts back and forth with minute details thanks to the butterfly effect and time loops. Basically, a more detailed explanation of the Timey-Wimey Ball, where shifts in the time travel theories are explained away as the changing "weather patterns" of time. For instance, on one day in Time City the inhabitants may observe that [[World War II]] begins in 1939, but on another day they may notice that it has changed to 1938. Perhaps time in the book is two-dimensional, with Time City time orthogonal to time everywhere else. {{spoiler|Except it turns out that the history of Time City can shift back and forth too...}} |
* In ''A Tale Of Time City'' by [[Diana Wynne Jones]], the titular city exists outside of the flow of history on the rest of the world. From this vantage point, the citizens see that history works like weather patterns—it shifts back and forth with minute details thanks to the butterfly effect and time loops. Basically, a more detailed explanation of the Timey-Wimey Ball, where shifts in the time travel theories are explained away as the changing "weather patterns" of time. For instance, on one day in Time City the inhabitants may observe that [[World War II]] begins in 1939, but on another day they may notice that it has changed to 1938. Perhaps time in the book is two-dimensional, with Time City time orthogonal to time everywhere else. {{spoiler|Except it turns out that the history of Time City can shift back and forth too...}} |
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* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novels: |
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** The History Monks are originally presented in ''[[Small Gods]]'' as ensuring everything happens [[Because Destiny Says So|the way it's supposed to]] (although, even then, the monk Lu-Tze decides to [[Screw Destiny]]). In ''[[Thief of Time]]'', it's revealed that, following various alterations to the Disc's temporal dimensions, the "true history" barely exists, and their main job is to prevent the Timey-Wimey Ball from imploding. And in ''[[Night Watch (Discworld)Watch]]'', when Vimes travels thirty years into the past to become [[My Own Grampa|his own mentor]], even the monks aren't sure what's happening. |
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{{quote|'''Lu-Tze:''' For a perfectly logical chain of reasons, Vimes ended back in time even ''looking'' rather like Keel! Eyepatch ''and'' scar! Is that [[Theory of Narrative Causality|Narrative Causality]], or [[Stable Time Loop|Historical Imperative]], or Just Plain Weird?}} |
{{quote|'''Lu-Tze:''' For a perfectly logical chain of reasons, Vimes ended back in time even ''looking'' rather like Keel! Eyepatch ''and'' scar! Is that [[Theory of Narrative Causality|Narrative Causality]], or [[Stable Time Loop|Historical Imperative]], or Just Plain Weird?}} |
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** Which is why if you try to place the times and events of some books, they take place a couple years before a different book, and at the same time, hundreds of years before the ''immediate sequel'' of that different book. |
** Which is why if you try to place the times and events of some books, they take place a couple years before a different book, and at the same time, hundreds of years before the ''immediate sequel'' of that different book. |
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{{reflist}} |
{{reflist}} |
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[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]] |
[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]] |
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[[Category:Consistency]] |
[[Category:Consistency]] |
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[[Category:This Index Is Not an Example]] |
[[Category:This Index Is Not an Example]] |
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