History Main / FishOutOfTemporalWater

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Magog has been a SealedEvilInACan since the early days of the War, when Heaven and Hell fought directly and celestials walked openly on Earth. Should he break free, he would have considerable trouble adapting to the idea of a cover cold war and of celestial secrecy from humanity, in addition to most of the new Princes being new faces to him.

* ''Franchie/FateSeries'': Deliberately avoided because the summoning spell that brings the Heroic Spirits into modern times automatically equips them with modern knowledge.

* Deliberately avoided in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': the summoning spell that brings the Heroic Spirits into modern times automatically equips them with modern knowledge. Saber [[spoiler: aka Myth/KingArthur]], for instance, is able to drive cars and motorcycles and suspects that she could fly a plane if she tried, due to her skills at horse riding being "translated" into a modern context. However, she was unfamiliar with what "going on a date" meant and had to have it explained to her. About the only Hero who ever displays real interest in the modern era is Rider aka [[spoiler: Iskander aka Alexander the Great]] in ''Literature/FateZero'', who is shown enthusiastically studying modern maps and atlases in preparation for "conquering the world".

[[caption-width-right:350: Houston, we have a problem... ''Houston''? You there?]]

[[caption-width-right:350: Don't worry, none of them know how to operate your space shuttle and get away with it.]]

* In the ''Pulp'' storyline of ''Webcomic/{{Harbourmaster}}'', Zefonith is called on by Veras to [[CloningBlues clone a mountaineer who died in 1953,]] with as much of his memory intact as possible. Said clone is thus [[AgentScully very skeptical]] about claims that he's removed from Earth by both centuries and light-years. Even when he meets the entomorphs.

* Just about all of North Korea itself has become this thanks to its isolationism. Apart from a small handful of spots, mostly where a facade was erected to feign modernity and advancement, the country is very firmly entrenched in the 1950s from a cultural and technological perspective. Those who make it out or the rare tourist who makes it in face some serious shock at just how alien life on the inside and outside is.
** On the flip side, North Koreans who defect to South Korea or even China are essentially travelling forward in time by 50 or 60 years, and are often bewildered by a half-century's worth of new technology and changing customs. South Korea even has a school, Hanawon, where North Korean refugees are taught how to function in South Korean society.

%%* ''TabletopGame/UnderWorld'' features this trope as a character type, the Lost.

%%* ''TabletopGame//UnderWorld'' features this trope as a character type, the Lost.

* Deliberately avoided in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': the summoning spell that brings the Heroic Spirits into modern times automatically equips them with modern knowledge. Saber [[spoiler: aka Myth/KingArthur]], for instance, is able to drive cars and motorcycles and suspects that she could fly a plane if she tried, due to her skills at horse riding being "translated" into a modern context. However, she was unfamiliar with what "going on a date" meant and had to have it explained to her. About the only Hero who ever displays real interest in the modern era is Rider aka [[spoiler: Iskander aka Alexander the Great]] in ''LightNovel/FateZero'', who is shown enthusiastically studying modern maps and atlases in preparation for "conquering the world".

If they're from any time after about the midpoint of the UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution (when people first began to take for granted that the future [[ScienceMarchesOn will be different]] from the present), the "[[IWantMyJetpack surprised]] by a future that's [[TheFutureIsShocking strange]] [[EverythingIsOnline in an unexpected way]]" trope will probably apply.

-->-- '''Stanford Pines''', ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''

* Decidedly and massively present in ''[[Literature/TheSalvationWar The Salvation War]]''. The forces of Heaven and Hell, perpetually consigned to command structures and levels of technology that would make the Romans look like musketeers, invade Earth...completely unprepared for humanity to be able to move as fast and strike from as far away as they do. Every human being since Adam, meanwhile, has been barred entry to Heaven and been consigned to Hell, and the armies of the 21st century continually free general after legendary general - only for them to come to the realization that they're completely out of their depth in the scheme of modern warfare.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* This is {{implied}} to be the case for Buddy, the protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain''. Whenever the ''Pteranodon'' family visit other ''Tyrannosaurus'', the Dinosaur Train goes through a time tunnel, and the live-action learning segments mention that ''T. rex'' didn't live at the same time as the other ''Pteranodon'' Terrace regulars, suggesting that his egg was found in a different part of the Cretaceous than when he lives.
[[/folder]]

* The [[https://spacejam.com/ Space Jam website]] used to be this for a long time. When ''Film/SpaceJam'' came out this website was made for it and has been left untouched ''since 1996''. Yes, children, when the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 was the hot new thing, when the Berlin Wall had freshly been torn down, mobile phones were luxury items owned only by the rich, and the Internet was still new and scary thing made accessible by squealing modems and AOL, there was the Space Jam website. It was left unaltered until 2021, the year where the sequel would be released.

* [[http://www.lincsfm.co.uk Lincs FM]], a British station in Lincolnshire, considered by some UK radio enthusiasts to be stuck in The Nineties(and its sister stations like The Beach aren't much better).

If the story is a comedy, the time-traveller is likely to discover that RidiculousFutureInflation has occurred. Then there will be the pop culture references that no one understands [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure (Elvis? Who's that?)]]. There will also probably be humorous references to how the celebrities of The Present Day have ended up by then. An amusingly and [[HarsherInHindsight horrifyingly]] dated one of these appeared in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', which had a newspaper in 2015 make reference to "Queen Diana." (On the amusing side, Elizabeth II was still Queen in 2015... and on the horrifying side, Princess Diana died in 1997, eight years after the film came out.)

* Deliberately avoided in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': the summoning spell that brings the Heroic Spirits into modern times automatically equips them with modern knowledge. Saber [[spoiler: aka Myth/KingArthur]], for instance, is able to drive cars and motorcycles and suspects that she could fly a plane if she tried, due to her "Riding" skill combined with such knowledge. However, she was unfamiliar with what "going on a date" meant and had to have it explained to her. About the only Hero who ever displays real interest in the modern era is Rider aka [[spoiler: Iskander aka Alexander the Great]] in ''LightNovel/FateZero'', who is shown enthusiastically studying modern maps and atlases in preparation for "conquering the world".

->''"Greetings. Do kids still say ‘greetings’? I haven't been in this dimension for a really long time."''

-->'''Doc:''' Who's President of the United States in 1985?\\

* Decidedly and massively present in ''[[Literature/TheSalvationWar]]''. The forces of Heaven and Hell, perpetually consigned to command structures and levels of technology that would make the Romans look like musketeers, invade Earth...completely unprepared for humanity to be able to move as fast and strike from as far away as they do. Every human being since Adam, meanwhile, has been barred entry to Heaven and been consigned to Hell, and the armies of the 21st century continually free general after legendary general - only for them to come to the realization that they're completely out of their depth in the scheme of modern warfare.

* Used in ''[[Literature/TheSalvationWar Pantheocide]]'' to subvert both the idea of "states' rights" (he admits it to have been a crock in his time) and the historical fantasy of General Robert E. Lee's military skill compared to 21st-century warfare[[note]]despite being trained to the level of his training opponents and fielding comparable forces, he just can't overcome the mindset difference that allows his opponents to use their forces' capabilities to a fuller extent than he does[[/note]]:

** Tragicomically, he at one point considers resigning his commission and enlisting, reasoning that being a basic rifleman couldn't have changed ''that'' much...
*** It all works out in the end; Lee eventually ends up running a psychiatric hospital and halfway house for those afflicted with worse culture shock than him.

* Rapata, aka Mr. Shark, from ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression''. He's a time-travelling 17th-century Maori navigator. His time machine is a canoe. He's actually adapted fairly well to modern and later times, except when he's really overworked and having a bad day (which is most of the time), in which case he skips planning for the century in question and just stomps down the main street of Seattle in a feather cape, brandishing a taiaha cudgel and screaming the name of whoever's pissed him off this time.

* The small-press urban fantasy game ''[=UnderWorld=]'' features this trope as a character type, the Lost.
* Most Shadowkinds in ''[[TabletopGame/D20Modern Urban Arcana]]'' are a special case. They don't exactly come from the past, just from an alternate dimension (the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' world) still operating with medieval technology, and where magic is a common fact of life, into the modern world where most people don't believe in magic.

* Roboute Guilliman from ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' was put on ice after being mortally wounded in a duel against Daemon Primarch Fulgrim. Nine thousand years later, the Eldar and Mechanicus collaborate to resurrect Guilliman so he can lead the Imperium against the tide of Chaos. Guilliman is appalled by the theocratic nightmare that is the Imperium, even musing that it would have been better for Horus to have razed it during the Heresy rather than letting it get this far, but puts on a brave face for the rest of humanity.

* The [[https://spacejam.com/ Space Jam website]] used to be this for a long time. When ''Film/SpaceJam'' came out this website was made for it and has been left untouched ''since 1996''. Yes, children, when the ''UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}}'' was the hot new thing, when the Berlin Wall had freshly been torn down, mobile phones were luxury items owned only by the rich, and the Internet was still new and scary thing made accessible by squealing modems and AOL, there was the Space Jam website. It was left unaltered until 2021, the year where the sequel would be released.

[[/folder]]

If the story is a comedy, the time-traveller is likely to discover that RidiculousFutureInflation has occurred. Then there will be the pop culture references that no one understands [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure (Elvis? Who's that?)]]. There will also probably be humorous references to how the celebrities of The Present Day have ended up by then. An amusingly and [[FunnyAneurysmMoment horrifyingly]] dated one of these appeared in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', which had a newspaper in 2015 make reference to "Queen Diana." (On the amusing side, Elizabeth II was still Queen in 2015... and on the horrifying side, Princess Diana died in 1997, eight years after the film came out.)