History Main / RetroactivePreparation

* ''{{Bleach}}'': Fullbringers manipulate souls, and according to them all matter has souls. [[spoiler:Tsukushima's special power allows him to become a SelfInsertCharacter in anyone's lives,retroactively becoming their friend,lover,commander,etc. Then he reveals that he can do this to ''any inorganic matter'' by retroactively preparing a trap for his opponent. Oh,and BTW? He's seen all his moves too.]]

* ''DoctorWho'':

** Which makes perfect sense, because he can't. The DeLorean is destroyed immediately upon returning.
*** Ah, but if he'd received a jerrycan of gas, the DeLorean wouldn't have been on the train tracks when it returned to the future (since the train wouldn't have been necessary), thus wouldn't have gotten smushed, and thus would have been available to take the gasoline back...

** Which makes perfect sense, because he can't. The Delorian is destroyed immediately upon returning.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''The Disappearance of HaruhiSuzumiya'', Kyon makes use of this to [[spoiler: mobilize the SOS-dan to come back in time and save himself from Asakura and fix the whole parallel universe thing.]]
* In ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Akemi Homura tried hard to save Kaname Madoka this way. [[DeterminedDefeatist Repeatedly]].

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* In ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Akemi Homura tried hard to save Kaname Madoka this way. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Repeatedly]].

* In the time-traveling RPG ''Continuum'', this is called "slipshanking," and it's considered an alternative to your future self actually showing up to help you out of a jam (a "Gemini"). However, contrary to the Bill & Ted example, the DM usually insists that the player arrange the slipshank in-game, or take a Frag penalty. Abusing the privilege is considered a sign of poor planning, and a rude imposition on your future self who has other things to do.

** Used rather cleverly at the very end, when we find out that two events earlier in the series that didn't make much sense at the time (the TARDIS returning to young!Amy waiting on the Doctor, despite us knowing that she didn't see him again till twelve years later; and the Doctor telling Amy to 'remember what I told you when you were seven') turn out to be future versions of the Doctor, setting things up so Amy will remember him. [[spoiler:Well, actually, it's the Doctor reversing through his own timeline as he gets erased from time, so he's really just taking advantage of involuntary time travel rather than having planned it, but it works the same way.]]

* Thomas Overbeck's ''Times Like This,'' a webcomic focused on time travel, makes an art out of this.
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Abusing the StableTimeLoop for fun and profit!

If you have a time machine then you have all the time in the world to overcome any hurdle set before you ''after'' you have already overcome said hurdle even if you are running on SanDimasTime. This rule mainly applies to any situation that can be solved by having the right equipment at the right time and the people in said situation are aware of the Wild Stallion Rule. It's like being CrazyPrepared, minus the foresight. In the example above, all you'd have to do is check the place where you might have hidden the key, then after watching your show go back in time and hide the key there.

For a similar abuse of the StableTimeLoop, compare TrickedOutTime, and contrast YouAlreadyChangedThePast, the failed attempt to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. See also TemporalParadox.

* Not only is it used in ''[[BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure]]'', it's practically elevated to a martial art in ''Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey'', where the climax has both the titular heroes and their nemesis making use of this trope [[spoiler: before pointing out that only the ''winner'' of the showdown can make use of it]].

* In ''Paycheck'', Ben Affleck's character does this not by going back in time, but by seeing the future before being stricken with amnesia.

* In the Disappearance of HaruhiSuzumiya, Kyon makes use of this to [[spoiler: mobilize the SOS-dan to come back in time and save himself from Asakura and fix the whole parallel universe thing.]]

* In ArtemisFowl: The Time Paradox, Artemis and Holly use this once to get out of trouble, but a second attempt falls flat.
* This is the premise of Philip K. Dick's short story "Paycheck."
* Jack McDevitt's recent novel "Time Travelers Never Die" makes extensive use of this principle.

* Because of this rule, [[DoctorWho The Doctor]] was able to save River Song in ''Forest of the Dead''.
** This is also the Doctor's only recourse in ''Blink'', not so much helping himself as helping Sally Sparrow defeat the Weeping Angels in 2007 because they sent him back to the 1960's without the Tardis.

** Used in Season Finale "The Big Bang" [[spoiler: 'Leave it (the Sonic Screwdriver) in her top pocket]]. Come on - who didn't go "Wha..?" at the end of the teaser, when [[spoiler: the pandorica opened and Amy fell out?]].
*** This is rather hilariously used in that episode, repeatedly, where we first see the Doctor show up and give random orders, leave, come back a second later, give more, and repeat a few times. Later, we see it from the other side, and learn he's doing this in real time in the future as he figures out what he needed to have already have happened. Thanks to the Timey-Wimey Ball in that universe, he probably can't rely on things he's going to do later, so going back and retroactively doing them the instant before he needs them is safer.

This trope name comes from ''[[BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure]]'', which not only uses this trope, but inspires its name with their band's catchphrase, "Wyld Stallyns rule!"