History Main / NonLinearCharacter

** As Guardian of Time Moebius the Time-Streamer is virtually omniscient, enabling him to ''[[TheChessmaster manipulate time travellers]]''.

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* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[spoiler:Madoka becomes this ([[AbstractApotheosis among other things]]) in the ending,]] and spends most of her "time" in a separate non-temporal dimension. She has memories of everything--or at least everything pertaining to {{Magical Girl}}s--including the future and [[spoiler:all alternate timelines and universes]].
* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' any bearer of the [[spoiler:Attack Titan]] can glimpse the memory of people who bear it in the future. As a result they may mention people who have not been born yet or remember things that haven't happened yet. [[spoiler:Eren Yeager]] exploited this ability by [[spoiler:imposing his desire for freedom on all past bearers and compelling his father and past self to act when they were hesitating]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Dr. Manhattan experiences his own past, present, and future simultaneously, though tachyon streams can interfere with this.
%%* The Spectre in the DC Comics series ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''.
%%* Gertrude's parents in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}''.
* Goblin demons in ''ComicBook/TheGrievousJourneyOfIchabodAzrael'' perceive time like this, in contrast to human souls. This is how one of them knows the plane isn't supposed to be there, and there's something unusual about Ichabod as well.
* Destiny and Death in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' exist outside of time.

--> "Long after you are dead, and this city is '''ashes''', and your species is '''extinct''', and this planet is a '''graveyard''', and every star in its sky has '''gone dark''', and all the universe beyond is '''lifeless''' and '''still''', I will carry your '''memory''' with me, perfect in every detail, into the '''next''' universe. And I will see you '''then''' exactly as I see you '''now'''. Warm and passionate and violent and alluring and misguided and aroused and damaged and '''alive'''. From '''my''' point of view, you will never '''truly''' die."

* In ''ComicBook/CinemaPurgatorio'', the protagonist briefly becomes non-linear. She sees herself sitting in her previous theater seat, but does not recognise herself since she can only see herself from the back. [[spoiler:A few issues before, when she did sit in that seat, she overheard her future self's horrified reaction to watching her death on screen. Once again, she couldn't recognise her because she was too far away.]]
* Colonel Weird of ''ComicBook/BlackHammer'' constantly drifts in and out of the Para-Zone, a strange dimension where time is wonky relative to the outside universe. He sees and experiences events out of chronological order as a result, and he's often confused when interacting with his more linear friends, since what is recent for them might be a distant memory or future event from his perspective.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' and its sequels, Doctor Strange's combination of being an immensely powerful {{Seer|s}} and a time traveller means that he tends to give off this vibe, at one point remarking that he lives his life entirely out of order. Unlike most examples, however, rather than simply sitting back and being passive, he actively meddles in the course of events, using his knowledge to try and guide humanity to the most optimal future. The actions he takes to ensure this do not make him the most popular person in the world.

* In the novel-length ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' fanfic ''Fanfic/LostInTimeSeries'', the first story of the saga, [[spoiler:''Origins'', portrays the life of a supporting character, Hudson the dire wolf, to be one as events unfold and Hudson shows the reality of who he really is - a character Hyperion traveling backwards in time and one who has been to a good future that the herd created, although the way to paving forward that future was through many {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s on the part of the first timeline's herd; when they go back in time to ensure the safety of ''another'' herd, the second herd becomes Non-Linear Characters themselves, resembling [[Series/DoctorWho Amy and Rory and River]] in that their memories belong to another timeline and not the one they found themselves in now.]]
* In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'',

* Saya in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6714221/1/The-Obsidian-Dawn The Obsidian Dawn]]'' is a [[Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft Bronze Dragon]] but has some trouble remembering ''when'' she is at the moment. Besides forgetting that someone is older/younger than she expects them to be, others have to realize how old she is by her speech. Leonardo Withering hears her cursing and guesses that she's an adult or teenager at the moment instead of the five year old she appears to be.
* In ''FanFic/TheWeaverOption'' the mutable nature of the Warp means that the Chaos Gods and daemons are not strictly limited to the present. It is entirely possible for such a being to exist before the mortal that birthed it and Chaos Gods can feed on souls that they have yet to claim. This in turn means that daemons can [[RetGone cease to have ever existed]] if the present is changed such that their mortal self is never born in the future.
* ''Fanfic/NewGirlMortimermcmirestinks'': Jesse and Emily theorize that Polaris is a being that exists beyond the human perception of time, hence how it seems to know where things are before it and Jesse find them. This is what they use to create a time machine.

* TheReveal in ''Film/LakeMungo'' suggests that [[spoiler:Alice is one. She saw her own ghost or corpse before she died, and she was sitting in her room when her mother June came in but couldn't see or talk to her...which we would later find out only happened chronologically after Alice's death.]]

* [[spoiler:An-Shuruk]] from ''Literature/ZaltecII''. It turns out that [[spoiler:that's how she's able to see the future.]]

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/TheCarpetPeople'', the wights are like this--they effectively know the 'script' for their entire life from the start. A very few wights, the thunorgs, are instead non-deterministic and can see alternate possibilities: normal wights are traumatised when the 'script' changes and they can no longer 'remember what's going to happen'.
* In Chapter 11 of his ''Literature/{{Confessions|SaintAugustine}}'', Augustine struggles to express that {{God}} does not lose the past or anticipate the future like man does in any of his many presents, but "rather that in the Eternal nothing passes away, but that the whole is present; but no time is wholly present." After all, why would the Creator of the time be contained within it?
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''

* The dragon in ''{{Literature/Grendel}}''. He remembers Beowulf killing him in the future, but does nothing to prevent his death because [[YouCantFightFate as far as he's concerned, the future is as unchangeable as the past]].

* The Martian "Old Ones" in Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/RedPlanet'' are so old they have trouble knowing "when" they are. At one point, a regular Martian guide shows an Old One a globe of current Mars to help the Old One locate himself temporally.
* U-Janus Nevstruev in Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' novel ''Literature/MondayBeginsOnSaturday'' is a borderline case between this trope and MerlinSickness. This one's time flow isn't linear but is relatively predictable; he lives a day normally, then hops 48 hours in the past. His favourite question is "What did I do/say yesterday?", since for him the past is the future.

* Creator/KurtVonnegut:
** Space explorer Winston Niles Rumfoord of ''Literature/TheSirensOfTitan''. Traveling from Earth to Mars, he enters a "chrono-synclastic infundibulum" phenomenon which transforms him and his dog into wave forms that materialize on planets at different points in the time continuum. As a result, Rumfoord becomes aware of the past, present and future.
** Billy Pilgrim from ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' at least ''believes'' that he is this, though the narrative [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane leaves it vague]] whether it's actually true or if he is just suffering brain damage after a plane crash that makes him think that he's constantly being transported into his own past and future. If it ''is'' true, then the alien Tralfamadorians that Billy claims - with equally ambiguous accuracy - to have [[AlienAbduction been kidnapped by]] at one point are an even more extreme version than Billy, since they exist in every moment of time at once and think that [[YouCantFightFate the idea of changing anything is inherently absurd.]]
%%* The eponymous character in ''The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich'', by Creator/FritzLeiber, gains this ability as a side effect of messing with time travel.
* Nerissa from ''Literature/TheUnderlandChronicles'' is mostly linear, but her [[WaifProphet visions]] yank her back and forth down the timestream at random, and its anyone's guess if she'll see the future, the past, or the present but elsewhere. Ripred describes her as "a fish flopping in the shallows of time", and her own people treat her quite poorly for it.
* Andrew Norton in ''Slow Chocolate Autopsy: Incidents from the Notorious Career of Norton, Prisoner of London'' by Ian Sinclair, who can never leave London, but can visit any point in the city's history.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]]: [[spoiler:The Moment]] decides to earn the Doctor's trust by taking AFormYouAreComfortableWith, appearing as [[spoiler:Rose Tyler/Bad Wolf]]. The only catch is that when this happens, the Doctor hasn't met that person yet. [[spoiler:The Moment]] admits to having a hard time telling past and future apart.

** [[EldritchLocation The House itself.]] [[spoiler:It uses a vision of the deaths of her children to drive Olivia to kill them herself in order to keep them safe.]]

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' - the oracle sees all of time simultaneously, but only because the [[ViciousCycle universe is on constant repeat]] and we've all been through this before...

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': When the original Harrison Wells from Earth-1 is resurrected on Earth-Prime, he reveals that the method of resurrection has made him this way and given him the ability to time travel to any point in his life: past, present, or future. After helping the team save the world, he opts to go back and relive his life with his wife over and over, unwilling to let her go.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* {{God}}, in Abrahamic religions, is traditionally believed to be omnipresent and omniscient throughout all time, while simultaneously existing outside of time (i.e. not being bound by it).
** {{Invoked}} by UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} in the Gospels. He makes a reference to Abraham, and the Pharisees sarcastically ask how Jesus could have seen Abraham, who lived thousands of years ago, when He's barely thirty. Jesus replies, "I tell you the truth: before Abraham was born, [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble I am]]." Also a CallBack to God introducing Himself to Moses in ''Exodus'': "I am that I am."
** It should be noted that God's relationship to time is contested thoroughly among Christian philosphers, where some (such as apologist William Lane Craig) argue that He is as temporal as humanity is.

* The [[MagicalRomani Zarovan Vistani tribe]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' exist outside of time, and can casually interact with people whenever they choose. Whilst it makes them master {{seer}}s even amongst the Vistani, it also means that [[HorrifyingTheHorror even other Vistani are frightened of them]]. This trait is so integral to them that even Mortu Zarovans, Vistani who have [[BroughtDownToNormal had most of their magical traits burned out of them by a triggered curse]], are still partially unstuck from time, causing them to switch from eerie prescience to slow, spacey behavior, depending on whether they're perceiving the past or future. In combat, they even need to test each round to see how well their personal time-zone is synched up with reality's, which can result in potentially strong bonuses -- or equally strong penalties.

* The first act of ''Film/ThreeTallWomen'' features three characters: senile, bitter 92-year-old A, her patient but rather cynical 52-year-old caretaker B, and C, a 26-year-old lawyer looking after A's affairs. Act II reveals what's really happening, namely that A, B, and C are the same woman at three different stages of life. And they're all aware of it, as A and B are scornful of C's naïveté while C is appalled that she ages into angry, pathetic A.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': Anyone related to [[TimePolice Ouroboros]], but especially Mender Lazarus, who seems to have lost track of his own timeline.
--> "Alright, then that means that I'm talking to a you that is not yet you, well 'my' you..."
** The [[GrandTheftMe Circle of Thorns]] contact Diviner Maros in ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'' is like this. An accident in the long-distant past stretched his consciousness across time from the moment of the incident to a moment in the near future, and his mind exists in all moments between those two times simultaneously. Conversations with him can be headache-inducing. Notable instances include him sending the PlayerCharacter to secure some information that he just told you (which he knows because you're about to tell him), skipping the boring bits of beating up some {{Mooks}} for information regarding where to go, or getting part-way through the (word for word) briefing of the first mission of his arc before realizing you've done that before. A considerable part of the playerbase names him amongst their favorite contacts.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Any and all of the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Bronze Dragonflight]] count. In particular, Chromie will greet players like an old friend then wonder if she's met them yet, declaring that she's in so many times and places that she has trouble keeping track.
* The Venar from ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney''. They perceive all of their life simultaneously. They are aware of everything that has happened to them and will happen to them, from their birth to their death, as if it happened now. Save for a period of time, soon to come, where their perception will be clouded and hidden, which upsets them quite a deal. (And given that they're never upset or surprised by anything ever usually, this means something.)
* Moebius the Timestreamer from ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain''. As Guardian of time, he is virtually omniscient, enabling him to ''[[TheChessmaster manipulate time travellers.]]''
** Also Moebius' master, the Elder God. He's first introduced at the far end of the ''Legacy of Kain'' timeline in ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKainSoulReaver Soul Reaver]]'', but when protagonist Raziel travels ''back'' in time in ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKainSoulReaver2 Soul Reaver 2]]'' the Elder God still calls him by name and knows of everything he did in the future.
%%* Observers in ''VideoGame/{{BlazBlue}}'' like Rachel and [[BigBad Terumi]] are like this.
* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': The [[MadScientist Lutece Twins]], who were responsible for creating the technology that allows the city of Columbia to fly, became Non-Linear prior to the events of the game. [[BigBad Father Comstock]] decided they were [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer useful]] and arranged for one of their machines to fail, explosively, and kill them. The explosion instead scattered them across space and time, granting them [[QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything Quantum Immortality]]. They spend their time jumping back and forth across space, time, and alternate timelines, experimenting with time, probablitity, and causality, all while trying to prevent Comstock from ever existing in the first place and pulling in as many alternate [[PlayerCharacter Booker DeWitts]] as they need.
%%* The [[YinYangBomb Balance Elemental]] from ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' strongly hints that it is this trope, although you defeat it without getting any explanation and [[EpilepticTrees fan interpretations]] of its words are all over the board.

** In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', in the game's true ending, [[spoiler:from Sigma's viewpoint, the time when Sigma meets Akane in 2028 after his jump is the last meeting they had in the game. From Akane's viewpoint it's their first proper meeting, but from Sigma's viewpoint, they've meet before in his future, which is actually that Sigma's past. Plus with Phi, Sigma first met her at the Mars Mission Test site in 2028, but when they both awake in the Nonary Game in 2074 it's the first time they both actually met, from ''both'' of their perspectives. This applies solely to Sigma himself too, since during most of the game he's both a 22 year old and a 67 year old at once, and has therefore technically got an out of line perspective of his own version of events. ItMakesSenseInContext]].
** By the end of the final timeline of ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', [[spoiler:Sigma is 22 year old biological father, and Diana is a 20-something year old biological mother, to a 20 year old Phi, a 124 year old Delta, and possibly another 124 year old Phi, despite neither Phi nor Delta being born at any point in that timeline.]]
* The Vex in ''Videogame/{{Destiny}}'' do not adhere to ideas like linear time, and when units are destroyed they simply replace them with other constructs from a different time frame, and one of the goals in the game's main questline is to locate the [[GardenOfEvil Black Garden]], the Vex's origin point, which is located somewhere outside of normal spacetime. One of the main challenges that the Guardians face is simply keeping the Vex from erasing their accomplishments; one of the game's Strikes involves stopping a Vex Axis Mind from recovering another Axis Mind you killed in an earlier Strike, and a different Strike requires you to prevent yet another Axis Mind from returning the Black Garden to non-linear time so they can repair the damage you've inflicted on it. The game's first Raid, the Vault of Glass, involves entering the titular Vault, which houses "ontological weaponry" which can [[RetGone retroactively erase things from existence]], and ends with the Guardians traversing timelines to recover artifacts that allow them to destroy Atheon, a Vex Mind whose purpose is [[RealityWarper to research methods to make the Vex themselves a fundamental law of physics.]]
* The G-Man is revealed to be this at the end of ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' on top of his previously established teleportation abilities. [[spoiler:Although the game takes place five years before ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', the G-Man here knows what will happen at the end of Episode 2 and has gone into the past to let Alyx save her father and hire her, which plucks her out of the timeline in the changed ending of Episode 2.]] The full extent of this is unknown, but he states in this game and in others that at times he must act under guidelines by his mysterious employers.
* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'' has Kupuna-Wa, the Quantum Mask of Time who is capable of seeing the past, present, and future all at once. She immediately greets Crash and Coco as if they were longtime friends on their first encounter, knows of future developments to come, and even knows when and how the bandicoots will meet their end.
-->'''Kupuna-Wa:''' I'm time! I see everything! And I mean ''everything''.
* Viki from the ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' series is a recurring character who appears in every main ''Suikoden'' game. She is an IneptMage with a specialty in teleportation, and her teleports occasionally randomly move her not only across space but also time. Despite the five games taking place in vastly different areas and in different time periods (and are not in a chronological order), Viki is a recruitable character in each one, and it's implied she (mostly) experiences the games in release order rather than in when they're set in the ''Suikoden'' timeline. This means that even when she does encounter another RecurringCharacter like Jeane, Viki experiences it in a vastly different context. At one point in ''Suikoden III'' you can recruit [[MyFutureSelfAndMe both Viki as a child and as an adult, with both versions of her appearing side by side]]: Entertainingly, adult Viki has been so disconnected from space and time she doesn't even recognize herself as a child (unlike child Viki, who instantly recognizes her future self), or remember that she's been through the events of the game once before.

* ''WebComic/SkinDeep'': Bugbears are incapable of being surprised [[spoiler:without the help of a special Bugbear talisman]]. The exact mechanics of this sense have been described as an "internal radar", and whilst Bugbears are not technically disconnected from time, it is a noteworthy semi-subversion.

** The dreamselves are also said to exist in a place less affected by time - this was how Rose's dreamself from the doomed timeline was able to merge with her alpha timeline dreamself, bringing knowledge and memories with her.

%%* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'': Sarda. But [[RuleOfFunny only when it's funny]].
* Time in the {{Heaven}} and {{Hell}} of ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'' is said not to exist, which effectively means that those who can travel between planes can pop into any era on Earth. As such the story arcs aren't arranged in chronological order. In fact, the [[GrimReaper title character]] [[spoiler:reaped himself]]. At the end of another arc a character is reincarnated and her second life is shown as an old lady at the same time her first was a teenager.
* Lillith in ''Webcomic/{{Gaia}}'' is able to see time, thanks to nearly having her soul removed. It does affect her sanity a bit though.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'':
** The Dreen exist "tangential to time", and have a tendency to announce things like "You will now experience an important revelation".
** Kjarl Thotep, at least before he's fully manifested, sees time and probability in a fundamentally different way, having trouble with tenses and reacting to characters doing something that increases their chances of survival by saying "You have all become ''much larger''".

[[folder:Web Original]]

%%* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce[=/=]WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'''s Professor Paradox, a DoctorWhomage, is one of these. However, he seems coherent and aware of multiple timelines. (Zero-Context: Entry is just "this is here")
* Clockwork, a TimeMaster from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' -- what you consider past, present, and future are all pretty much parts of a story he's already read/written. To illustrate, he constantly shifts between three different "ages."
-->'''Clockwork:''' You see, for me, time moves backwards and forwards and... oh, why am I bothering? You're fourteen.\\
\\
'''Clockwork:''' The Observants look at time like they are watching a parade: one thing after another, passing by in sequence right in front of them. ''I'' see the parade from above - all the twists and turns it might, or might not, take.
* In the 2018 reboot of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', season 4 reveals that Madame Razz seems senile because [[spoiler:she is being shunted between two different time periods at random, experiencing them both as the present. Because of this, she gets confused as to what time period she's in and whether she's talking to Mara or Adora. Furthermore, she can experience the same moment repeatedly; she's already met Mara for the first time several times and gets excited when she realizes she's going to get to do it again.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' gives us Bunnix, also known as [[spoiler: Alix Kubdel]], whose Miraculous enables her to hop through time. She's clearly privy to information about the future that Ladybug and Chat Noir (or "Mini-bug and Kitten Noir," as she calls them) don't know yet, but there's a lot that she won't/can't tell them lest it mess with the timeline.

* [[Characters/TheFlashEobardThawne Eobard Thawne]] of ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' fame is a user and abuser of TimeTravel, so his appearances are not necessarily in chronological order. This is especially apparent in ''ComicBook/TheReturnOfBarryAllen'' and ''ComicBook/TheButton''.