History Main / StableTimeLoop

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31564853 A Little Red and Blue]]'', Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda. She later meets the past Steve, introducing herself as "Kate". [[DeconstructionFic Despite her initial hostility towards him due to her timeline's Steve]] [[DeconstructionFic seemingly leaving her behind to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy]], [[DefrostingIceQueen she eventually warms up to him]], even giving him some advice on how to better help the common people, [[TimeTravelRomance and the past Steve develops feelings for her]]. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who [[FixFic explains that he didn't actually stay in the past]] and that part of what inspired Peggy, particularly founding S.H.I.E.L.D., was Steve telling her Sharon's advice to her.

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31564853 A Little Red and Blue]]'', Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda. She later meets the past Steve, introducing herself as "Kate". Despite her initial hostility towards him due to her timeline's Steve [[DeconstructionFic seemingly leaving her behind to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy]], [[DefrostingIceQueen she eventually warms up to him]], even giving him some advice on how to better help the common people, [[TimeTravelRomance and the past Steve develops feelings for her]]. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who [[FixFic explains that he didn't actually stay in the past]] and that part of what inspired Peggy, particularly founding S.H.I.E.L.D., was Steve telling her Sharon's advice to him.

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31564853 A Little Red and Blue]]'', Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda. She later meets the past Steve, introducing herself as "Kate". Despite her initial hostility towards him due to her timeline's Steve [[DeconstructionFic seemingly leaving her behind to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy]], she eventually warms up to him, even giving him some advice on how to better help the common person, and the past Steve develops feelings for her. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who [[FixFic explains that he didn't actually stay in the past]] and that part of what inspired Peggy, particularly founding S.H.I.E.L.D., was Steve telling her Sharon's advice to him.

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31564853 A Little Red and Blue]]'', Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda. She later meets the past Steve, introducing herself as "Kate". Despite her initial hostility towards him due to her timeline's Steve [[DeconstructionFic seemingly leaving her behind to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy]], she eventually warms up to him, even giving him some advice on how to better help the common person, and the past Steve develops feelings for her. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who explains that he didn't actually stay in the past and that part of what inspired Peggy, particularly founding S.H.I.E.L.D., was Steve telling her Sharon's advice to him.

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31564853 A Little Red and Blue]]'', Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda. She later meets the past Steve, introducing herself as "Kate". Despite her initial hostility towards him to her timeline's Steve [[DeconstructionFic seemingly leaving her behind to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy]], she eventually warms up to him, even giving him some advice on how to better help the common people, and the past Steve develops feelings for her. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who explains that he didn't actually stay in the past and that part of what inspired Peggy was Steve telling her Sharon's advice to him.

* StableTimeLoop/{{Film}}

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31564853 A Little Red and Blue]]'', Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda. She later meets the past Steve, introducing herself as "Kate". Despite her initial hostility towards him to her timeline's Steve [[DeconstructionFic seemingly leaving her behind to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy]], she eventually warms up to him and the past Steve develops feelings for her, even giving him some advice on how to better help the common people. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who explains that he didn't actually stay in the past and that part of what inspired Peggy was Steve telling her Sharon's advice to him.

* In ''Fanfic/TheEventideVerse'' oneshot ''Better To Ask Forgiveness,'' Discord time-travels back to shortly after his [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 second imprisonment in stone]] to apologise for this rampage, and in the process tells Celestia [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E11KeepCalmAndFlutterOn about Fluttershy's success at reforming him.]] While she initially believes he must be trying to trick her, she eventually considers he may be telling the truth, and it becomes the nudge that convinces her to attempt his rehabilitation in the first place.

* In live performances, the ''Music/FlightOfTheConchords'' song 'Bowie' is usually preceded by a description of Bret and Jermaine travelling back in time and meeting David Bowie, to whom Bret plays his Bowie's own songs, and even leaves an "easy to play Bowie song book".

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Gemini}}'', this trope is [[DefiedTrope defied]] by [[InvokedTrope invoking]] TimeyWimeyBall: It’s easier for the Daleks to change the past than it is for anybody else, so the military is trying to create super-soldiers that can change the timeline as easily as the Daleks can.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/79147/1/que-sera-sera/whatever-will-be-will-be Que Sera, Sera]]''. Celestia's ability to know the future is finally explained after she summons Twilight Sparkle and her friends to defeat a great foe -- an ancient dragon who has awoken and gone on a rampage, but Celestia knows that it is all according to plan -- and indeed, the rampage was a collaboration between the dragon and Princess Celestia, without even Princess Luna's knowledge. [[spoiler:The reason is that the dragon is Spike, several thousand years older, and he uses his firey breath to send himself and the Mane Six back over two thousand years into the past. Twilight at first worries about changing the future, but eventually realizes that they are permanently stuck in the past and relaxes. Eventually she has two children, naming one of them after Celestia, and the other after Trixie, though her sister mispronounces Lulumoon as "Luna-moon". When Discord shows up, she and the rest of the mane six expect the princesses to show up... but they don't, because they're still foals. Namely, Twilight's. And the Elements of Harmony don't even exist yet, the only weapon that can beat Discord. Or at least, they don't exist in the form of the elements... In the end, Twilight and her friends have to sacrifice themselves and [[TearJerker BECOME the Elements of Harmony]], entrusting Spike to help Luna and Celestia, and then eventually become the monster that sends them into the past in the first place, several thousand years down the line. The story ends with Spike having reverted to his child-like form and finally reuniting with Celestia, who has just had to send her own mother to her death.]]

* In the ''[[Fanfic/TheEventideVerse Eventide Verse]]'' oneshot ''Better To Ask Forgiveness,'' Discord time-travels back to shortly after his [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 second imprisonment in stone]] to apologise for this rampage, and in the process tells Celestia [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E11KeepCalmAndFlutterOn about Fluttershy's success at reforming him.]] While she initially believes he must be trying to trick her, she eventually considers he may be telling the truth, and it becomes the nudge that convinces her to attempt his rehabilitation in the first place.

There are two basic types of time loop: a PredestinationParadox, in which knowledge of events in the future, even attempts to evade them, ultimately causes those events to happen (Sorry [[Theatre/OedipusTheKing Oedipus]]. And [[Film/TheTerminator John Connor]].) and the even more mind-squirming "bootstrap paradox"[[note]]from the classic Creator/RobertHeinlein short story, "Literature/ByHisBootstraps"[[/note]] (also called the ontological paradox), in which the time loop allows for the existence of information or objects that have no origin. The classic hypothetical bootstrap paradox is to jump into the future, steal some wondrous gadget, come back to the original time, grab the patent on that gadget and start mass-producing them immediately. Eventually, they become so ubiquitous or so common that you, ten, twenty years younger (and thus from a time period where you aren't aware that you would go on to patent and mass-market them after returning to your present), show up and steal one. The simplest version is the one where the time machine itself is the product of the stable time loop — the character sees a version of himself pop into existence with a time machine, hand it to him, and press the button, only to be whisked into the past where he hands it to his past self and presses the button[[note]]This exact example is also an Object Paradox, wherein the time machine has no past and no future outside the loop, and therefore no origin[[/note]]. There is no paradox for physical objects (but not information); such a process involves the spontaneous creation and subsequent elimination of mass-energy, which technically does not violate the 1st Law of Thermodynamics because "the books are balanced" after the loop has occurred. This supposedly happens all the time at the Quantum level, but as far as we know, does not happen at the human scale.

There are two basic types of time loop: a PredestinationParadox, in which knowledge of events in the future, even attempts to evade them, ultimately causes those events to happen (Sorry [[Theatre/OedipusTheKing Oedipus]]. And [[Film/TheTerminator John Connor]].) and the even more mind-squirming "bootstrap paradox"[[note]]from the classic Creator/RobertHeinlein short story, "Literature/ByHisBootstraps"[[/note]] (also called the ontological paradox), in which the time loop allows for the existence of information or objects that have no origin. The classic hypothetical bootstrap paradox is to jump into the future, steal some wondrous gadget, come back to the original time, grab the patent on that gadget and start mass-producing them immediately. Eventually, they become so ubiquitous or so common that you, ten, twenty years younger (and thus from a time period where you aren't aware that you would go on to patent and mass-market them after returning to your present), show up and steal one. The simplest version is the one where the time machine itself is the product of the stable time loop — the character sees a version of himself pop into existence with a time machine, hand it to him, and press the button, only to be whisked into the past where he hands it to his past self and presses the button[[note]]This exact example is also an Object Paradox, wherein the time machine has no past and no future outside the loop, no origin, and somehow never decays or suffers wear and tear[[/note]]. The paradox can be resolved for physical objects; such a process would require the spontaneous creation and subsequent elimination of mass-energy, which violates the 1st Law of Thermodynamics (a principle established in the mid-19th century to which no exceptions have ever been found).

* In one ''Tubby Nugget'' strip, Tubby steals a slice of pizza from his future self and and is congradulating himself on getting a free snack, when his past self steals the slice and [[https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Meet-Tubby-a-cute-loved-and-funny-nugget-60c08b838e0e4__880.jpg closes the loop.]] Nobby is unsurprised by the outcome.

There are two basic types of time loop: a PredestinationParadox, in which knowledge of events in the future, even attempts to evade them, ultimately causes those events to happen (Sorry [[Theatre/OedipusTheKing Oedipus]]. And [[Film/TheTerminator John Connor]].) and the even more mind-squirming "bootstrap paradox"[[note]]from the classic Creator/RobertHeinlein short story, "Literature/ByHisBootstraps"[[/note]] (also called the ontological paradox), in which the time loop allows for the existence of information or objects that have no origin. The classic hypothetical bootstrap paradox is to jump into the future, steal some wondrous gadget, come back to the original time, grab the patent on that gadget and start mass-producing them immediately. Eventually, they become so ubiquitous or so common that you, ten, twenty years younger (and thus from a time period where you aren't aware that you would go on to patent and mass-market them after returning to your present), show up and steal one. The simplest version is the one where the time machine itself is the product of the stable time loop — the character sees a version of himself pop into existence with a time machine, hand it to him, and press the button, only to be whisked into the past where he hands it to his past self and presses the button[[note]]This exact example is also an Object Paradox, wherein the time machine has no past and no future outside the loop, no origin, and somehow never decays or suffers wear and tear[[/note]]. The paradox can be resolved as regards physical objects by noting that such a process would imply the spontaneous creation and subsequent elimination of mass-energy, which violates the 1st Law of Thermodynamics (a principle established 150 years ago to which no exceptions have ever been found).

* The ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27639415 When lightning strikes]]'' has Bunnyx sends Marinette, Adrien, and Kagami back in time for their [[{{Polyamory anniversary]]. The three of them learn that they went back to the day that Marinette meet Adrien, though Future Marinette notes the lack of rain that lead to him helping her and her falling in love. She has her Kagami use the Dragon Miraculous to create a rainstorm to make sure that moment happens, and thus set in motion the events that would lead the three to get together in the future.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':

* In Machinima/ChronicleOfTheAnnoyingQuest, when the party reaches the Caverns of Time, Guy accidentally activates a rune that displaces him in time from previous points in the story, including his original warlock apprentice outfit, his tier 1 set ghost form, and his tier 2 set undead form. After a few confused remarks by the past versions, Guy casts a spell to send them all back. What makes it an example is present!Guy's reaction to the situation:

*** Another one is how [[spoiler:Sigma learns the code to Bomb 1. Dio planted four bombs throughout the facility, numbered 0-4. You get three of the codes out of Dio himself in three different timelines. The fourth is told to you in a recorded message left by Zero. Zero only knew the code because he is Sigma's future self, and therefore learned it from the same message when he watched it as Sigma]].

*** Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/ArthurCClarke both [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past tried]] [[Literature/TheLightOfOtherDays that]]. Problem is, the past starts a microsecond ago, so it effectively ends any notion of privacy.

* "One For the Vine", on the ''Music/{{Genesis}}'' album ''Music/WindAndWuthering'', tells the story of a soldier deserting from an army led by a messianic leader. The deserter finds himself on an icy waste populated by primitive people, who see him as a messenger of God. He reluctantly takes the role simply in order to help himself get home, but ends up becoming the very messiah from whom he fled. As he leads his army into battle, he sees one soldier run away from the host, and vanish...

This is also the basic premise of how TimeTravel would work, according to Albert Einstein. Simply put, even if it were possible to travel back in time, you would not be able to change any events in the past, because your future self would have already caused them to happen in the way that they did. No matter your intentions, everything that you did [[YouCantFightFate would only fulfill the past]]. The only thing that would change is your perception of the events. (Thus explaining HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct.)

TrickedOutTime is when you "change" the past on purpose to resemble this; CloseEnoughTimeline is when you partially succeed but decide the end result will suffice. TimeLoopTrap is when you use a time loop as a way to imprison someone or something. Compare YouAlreadyChangedThePast, which often results in this. A WaybackTrip usually implies this. If this occurs in a universe where you can SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, you most likely have a TimeyWimeyBall on your hands. See RetroactivePreparation for one way this can be exploited. For the [[RecursiveCanon Recursive Fiction]] variant of this, see MutuallyFictional.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CuttingTheKnot Next time, just wait for the DVD.]]]]