Basic Trope: A character's backstory never changes, even when times do and they'd be implausibly old.
- Straight: Bob's grandfather is a World War II veteran, which would have been plausible when the work began in the '90s, but sticks when the story is clearly no longer set in that time period and he wouldn't realistically be alive.
- Exaggerated: Bob's grandfather is established as old enough to have lived through both World Wars, in a work set in the 2020s.
- Downplayed: A character's background as a Holocaust survivor is retained in the 2020's, which strains credulity but isn't completely impossible to Hand Wave since they were very young but could still conceivably remember it.
- Justified:
- The character is The Ageless and/or Long-Lived (and may also be Really 700 Years Old).
- The character has been de-aged through an Applied Phlebotinum.
- Bob's grandfather hasn't let something as silly as death stop him from helping.
- The story takes place in a Retro Universe that combines modern life with a historical setting.
- Subverted:
- The character's background is later revealed to have been false.
- The story is revealed to still take place in what was the present day when it began.
- Double Subverted: But then this also turns out to be incorrect.
- Inverted: Bob stays fixed at twenty five and his backstory shifts with time, usually being a veteran of the last war.
- Zig-Zagged: Some aspects of a character's backstory stick when times change, others don't.
- Lampshaded: "How old are they even?"
- Averted: Close attention is paid to the character's backstory, especially in relation to time.
Return to Refugee from Time.
