No! Don't you read this TV Tropes page! Because if you do, here's what's gonna happen!
"Don't you do that! Because if you do, here's what's gonna happen."
— The Visitor's Catchphrase
Le Visiteur du Futur
(The Visitor from the Future) is a French comedic Web series made by François Descraques about a time traveller from the future who always "warns" an ordinary guy named "Raph" about the impeding doom his (often ordinary) actions will bring to humankind. The plot gets more convoluted as time passes...
Four seasons have been completed. They have been subtitled into English. Also, a comic book has been released in 2013. The fourth season has been strongly hinted to be the ending to the web series, but its universe will continue in other media. A novel titled Le Visiteur du Futur: La Meute (The Pack) written by Slimane-Baptiste Berhoun (Henry Castafolte's actor) has been published in 2014 (initially as a five-part online novel; the first one is readable for free) and is basically the show's fifth season.
A full-length movie, who was teased by François Descraques since 2021 was released in September 7th, 2022.
Le Visiteur du Futur provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Mattéo in the first season.
- All Just a Dream
- Except it's an interrogation room for the Visitor.
- Happens to Raph in season 3 when he's in a dilemma about joining the Missionaries or not. He wakes up twice.
- In the opening of season 4, Raph takes a appointment by a psychologist (played by Frédéric Molas) who suddenly shot him in the chest. It was a virtual simulation that bugged.
- Action Girl: Judith and Constance.
- Artificial Human: The Henri Castafolte robots. Their literal Heroic BSoD, which occurs when they realize they're not human, is a Running Gag.
- Ascended Extra: Constance started as a 30 second cameo in season 2 and became a main character in season 3.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: About killer robots:Raph: They won't kill me, I hope?
The Vistor's Future Double: No, these are just killer robots cleaning up. Of course they will kill you! - Ax-Crazy: Sarah Lombardi
- Badass in a Nice Suit: The Lombardis' Mooks.
- Badass Longcoat: The Visitor himself has one, as do Dario and Raul Lombardi (but Dario is more a Dirty Coward than a badass).
- Bodyguard Crush: Mattéo to Judith.
- Bond One-Liner: after decapitating the main villain from Season 3... "Anyway, he lost his head".
- Book Ends: Both season 1 and 4 finale ends in the park where Raph and his friends were in the first episode and Raph finally throws his beer can into the bin at the very last shot .
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Henri Castafolte, sometimes.
- Butt-Monkey: Raph in the first season.
- Butterfly of Doom / For Want Of A Nail: Discussed. Every single thing Raph does is one of these, according to the Visitor.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall
- The season 2 episode 9 ends with Henry telling we must wait the next episode to know how he had been kidnapped.
- In the last episode of season 2, Stella tells to Judith and Sara they should create their own gang as it would make a great Spin-Off.
- In the second episode of season 3 :
Constance: You destroyed my life.The Visitor: And you're here to get revenge, is that it? Frankly it's very season 2 of you.- Near the end of season 3, Raul Lombardi shows up after being absent for most of it, then looks like he may put himself in great danger in the following episode. The Visitor then points out it would be stupid if he died right after reappearing in the series.
- Calling Your Attacks: Mattéo use this with "Kata Guruma" in the finales of the first three seasons.
- Casting Gag: Céline Tran aka Katsuni, a former porn actress, as the Baroness, the Queen Clothild 4's uptight and prude conselor.
- When she does get into a fight in a mobile home trailer, we are treated to a Battle Discretion Shot of the trailer rocking...
- Catchphrase: "Voilà ce qui va se passer !" ("Here's what's gonna happen!"), for the Visitor.
- Chekhov's Gun: In the first season finale, one of Raph's friends drops his beer can. Guess what will prevent Raph from being shot by Judith.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Raph has a crush on Stella since kindergarden. She does not reciprocate. Or does she... ? (As seen in the season 2.)
- Clone Angst: Robotic variant. Each Henri Castafolte robot is convinced to be the actual Henri Castafolte. There isn't any real Henri Castafolte, the closest would be the prototype of the Henri Castafolte series, who is himself convinced to be human and began creating a whole series of robotic clones of himself. This first robot is actually an attempt of creating the perfect robotic mind, designed by a scientist named Germain Castafolte recreating the appearance of a humourist called Henri Bouchard. Each Henri Castafolte is programmed to suffer from a Heroic BSoD when he discovers that he is a robot. When this happens, it is necessary to reprogram him, probably to erase the memory of this event. After one of his Heroic BSoD, the main Henri Castafolte (the companion of the Visitor) manages to wake up before being reprogrammed and remembers that he is a robot. Depression ensues...
- Comedic Sociopathy: The scene where Judith interrogates the Visitor in the first season.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: A type 3. "Le Visiteur du Futur - L'élu des Dieux" (The Visitor from the Future - Chosen of the Gods) An upcomming comicbook that happens between season one and two.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Clothilde IV offers Stella to become her official mistress, Stella reminds her that she's currently in a relationship.Clothilde IV: He can watch but not touch.
- Crossover: The Visitor appears in an episode of Flander's Company, another comedic French Web series.
- The Visitor also appears in a french Manga cross-over with City Hall.
- Creator Cameo: François Descraques briefly appears as the imaginary future son of Raph in the tenth episode of season 1.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Visitor can seems pretty annoying and stupid at first glance, but he really believes that he's working towards a brighter future for the humanity, is very dedicated to his task, and can get very serious and cunning when it's necessary.
- Cultural Translation: The english subtitles replaced names of French celebrities with names of similar celebrities people in English-speaking countries would recognize. For instance: "Miss Amanda" (a rapper who made viral videos) becomes "Chris Crocker", M Pokora (RNB singer) "50 Cent", "Anne Roumanoff" (a humorist) "Margaret Thatcher"....
- Cut Himself Shaving: When asked by Judith how he got all the blood and bandages on his face (which is his usual appearance), the Visitor used this literal excuse.
- Deadpan Snarker: Judith. The Visitor can get very snarky sometimes.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind
- :Remember Those Two Guys accompanying Raph in the first episodes? Their future selves will create the Time Police.
- Remember Mr Lopez from the beginning the second season ? He should have married a baker, and their offsprings would have been responsible for triggering acid rains all over the world around 2300. It's great the Visitor prevented this twice. Turns out the baker didn't appreciate to have her life rewritten. She is one of the antagonists of season 3 and she is more than a match for Mattéo, Judith and the Visitor in unarmed combat.
- Death in the Limelight: Judith dies in her self-titled episode in season 3.
- Dying Dream: Judith, after being stabbed by Sarah Lombardi. It is triggered by a cybernetic chip implanted in her body because she worked for the Time Police in her original temporal origin, and remained in her after the disappearance of the Time Police. This is an unusual example, as the viewer saw the character being severely wounded before, and that the hallucinatory nature of the vision is quickly revealed.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The first few episodes are short independant gags. It's not after episode 5 it develops a story. The first season has shorter episodes, less budget and the Visitor's outfit is slightly different.
- In episode 4, when the Visitor tackles Raph on the ground, the latter sends him away by activating his time traveling device. In every other instances, the Visitor travels with everyone he grabs.
- The End of the World as We Know It: What the Visitor claims he's trying to avoid. The Trope Namer is also used in the credits of the first season. This is also the title of the first season finale.
- Everyone Is Bi: At least in the future where Judith and Mattéo come from. The trope is nearly literally invoked by Judith:Judith: In the future everyone is bi.
- Face–Heel Turn: Mattéo at the beginning of season 3.
- False Friend: Raph first meets Judith when she acts as if she's fallen in love with him in order to spy on the Visitor. Even after letting him in on her motive she keeps up the girlfriend act until she receives what she wants.
- Fantastic Racism: The Visitor and Henri Castafolte mention racism toward zombies and robots.
- First Girl Wins: Stella ends with Raph in season 2 and then again in season 3... But she ends with the queen of Neo Versailles in season 4.
- The Food Poisoning Incident: Averted due to a warning from the Visitor.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: One of the Butterflies of Doom, according to the Visitor.
- Future Me Scares Me: The Visitor's is a delusional Wild Card ready to work for cigarettes and apparently indifferent to saving the world. Note, however, that the Visitor doesn't seem to mind; he's one of his Double's most frequent employers.
- Gatling Good: Henri Castafolte uses one against the Lombardi's mooks during the finale of the second season, and then against zombies at the beginning of the third season.
- Gender Bender
- Mentioned as one of the Butterfly of Doom chain of events, but we don't see it actually happen.
- There is a spoof/homage fanmade video where Raph, the Visitor, and Henri Castafolte became women because of a Temporal Paradox caused by their alterations of the Time.
- Happens to a minor character at the end of season 4.
- Get Thee to a Nunnery: A season 4 Running Gag is to have gestures that currently have a sexual meaning losing it in the Visitor's future. This was foreshadowed in season 2, when neither the Visitor nor Judith and Mattéo saw any problem with naming a plan "the threesome" (because it needed three people besides the Visitor himself to work).
- Goggles Do Nothing: One of the accessories worn by the Visitor. However, he does put them on when showing Simon the acid rain.
- Gone Horribly Right: In one episode, the Visitor thanks Raph's pals for their participation in the missions by giving them copies of answers to their exams. They use them, get caught, and are expelled.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The mildly heroic Visitor already has impressive scars. The ones of his addicted and cynical future self are even worse.
- Gratuitous English: Happens a few times like "What did yo exspect" from Raul.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: The series' plots lie upon this.
- In the first season, the Visitor stalks Raph, using him as an Unwitting Pawn to prevent him from creating a Time Police organization. At the same time, the said organization (which is fond of Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique) uses Raph as an Unwitting Pawn to catch the Visitor and ensure its own creation.
- In the second, the antagonists are the three Lombardi siblings, who are struggling against the Visitor's time modification because preventing certain ecological disasters from happening will in turn prevent their own births.
- A bit less in the third, in which the plot is focused on the struggle between the Visitor's team and a firm called "the Missionaries", which has the same goal but with a lot more material, money, and manpower. The Missionaries firm is actually a deception, its true goal is the conquest of the world by its leader.
- Have We Met Yet?: Parodied and subverted with Matteo's second appearance. Raph remembers him from an earlier episode but Matteo doesn't remember Raph causing Matteo to speculate that Raph met his future self. As it turns out, Matteo has a bad memory because he drinks too much.
- Head Desk: When Raph has to deal with the Visitor spouting nonsense at him, a hologram from a Time Police agent spying on the conversation, and another hologram from the Future Visitor also trying to spy on the conversation... it ends this way.
- Heel–Face Turn
- Mattéo, becoming a Spanner in the Works in the first season.
- Constance, when she discovers the true nature of the Missionaries.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Judith in season 2.
- Heroic Sacrifice
- The Visitor knows that if he keeps altering time to prevent the disasters in the future, he will eventually create a Temporal Paradox which will delete him from existence. He keeps doing it.
- The Taking the Bullet example below is a subverted example of this trope: Castabot is repaired later in the series.
- Near the end of the third season, Judith (who was mortally wounded earlier) does one to give the Visitor enough time to flee from Dario Lombardi and the Necrophiliacs running after the heroes.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners
- The Visitor and Henry.
- Tim and Leo.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Done by the Visitor's Double to interrupt the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique used on the past Visitor.
- Hilarious Outtakes: At the end of each episode of the first season.
- Honey Trap: Poor Raph...
- I Banged Your Mom: The Visitor uses this as a threat. To sum up, it was something like: if you don't do what I told you, I'll travel to the past to bang your mom and you won't exist.
- Identical Grandson: Subverted and mocked. In one episode, the Visitor instructs Raph to prevent the Visitor's own existance by preventing his ancestor from meeting his ancestor's wife. Said ancestor apparently turns out to look exactly like the Visitor, but is eventually revealed to actually be the Visitor himself, who set up this masquarade to mock Raph and show Raph how it feels to be seen as a mad man.The Visitor: Of course! Did you really believe my ancestor had the same face than me?
- Played straight in season 4, where one of the Missionaries, Ben, and his descendant, the 'Hard Corner' merchant, look exactly the same except for the haircut and the voice.
- I Love the Dead: There's a prison full of necrophiliacs.
- Improbable Hairstyle: Mild realistic example for Raph and the Visitor.
- Interquel: The comic book, titled Le Visiteur du Futur : L'Élu des Dieux ("The Visitor from the Future: The Chosen of the Gods"), which is an original story set between the first and second seasons of the webseries.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Judith does this to Dario in order to save the Visitor and Constance.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: The Time Police is really fond of them.
- Jerkass: The Visitor (especially in the first season), Judith and Henri Bouchard.
- Just as Planned: parodied with the Time Brigad leader (actually Ralph's two friends) in season 1, who seems to anticipate practically everything that happens. In the finale, Matéo, irritated that they basically based their plan around his incompetence, decide to quit, which they turn out to have planned as well. He then decides as a reaction to help the Visitor escape and save Raph:
- Karma Houdini: Dario and Sarah Lombardi.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: A couple of futuristic handguns appear from time to time in the series, but they just fire bullets.
- Lampshade Hanging: It's often lampshaded that the time travel and paradoxes in the show don't make any sense, specifically for the Deus ex Machina in the ending of the first season.
- Large Ham and Motor Mouth: The Visitor each time he details what will happen.
- Meaningful Background Event: During season 3 finale, if you take a close look at what happens at exactly 17:08, you're in for a surprise: Ralph taking out Future!Joseph.
- Meanwhile, in the Future…: Happens a few times.
- Milkman Conspiracy: According to the Visitor, in the future pizza companies rule the world economy.
- Mind Screw: In-universe: the Visitor wakes up in a room and finds he has a girlfriend and that he is delusional — He's just an insane guy who thinks he's on a mission to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Actually, it's just a trap to interrogate him on how he always evades the Time Police.
- Mundane Utility: Using time travel to secure a wine bottle from the past, hiding it somewhere, and recovering it in the present. There's also an episode where Raph uses the time travel to try to prove Stella didn't tell him when her birthday is.
- No Name Given
- Even though the Visitor is arguably the main character of the show, he has never given his name (and nobody's even cared to ask either). There are two instances in the second season where the Visitor is about to give his name but then doesn't. His real name could be William Hunter (cf. the WMG page). It's not Bernard.
- Finally his name is given in the season 4 finale. It's Renard (Which means 'Fox' in french).
- Moreover, most of the main characters are only known by their given name: Raph, Judith, Mattéo, Tim, Léo. Oddly enough, Raph's full name is not given neither. In season 1, he says "only my friends call me like that" and in season 2 episode 12, he claims that Raph is NOT a shortcut for Raphael.
- The Not-Love Interest: Raph and The Visitor for each other. Early season one has a Stalker with a Crush vibe to it, their general realtionship is platonic Belligerent Sexual Tension and the season 4 plot basically happens because Raph wants to "talk to [The Visitor] one last time".
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Raph
- The comic book reveals Raph is actually his last name. On his student card however his first name is blackened.
- Origins Episode: While La Meute is a sequel to the webseries, half of the story is a flashback about the Visitor's childhood.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Seems to be something combining F and V.
- Pretty Little Headshots
- Puns: Unfortunately, they are really hard to translate from French to English.
- Punch a Wall: When Raph tries to punch the Visitor just before the Visitor time travels away. His fist hits the door instead.
- Punk Punk: The creator described the visual of Season 4 as "Steampunk à chien" (untranslatable pun which closest equivalent would be something like "Hobo Steampunk").
- The Reveal: In season three final, the Visitor reveals that he comes from an Alternate Utopia Universe.
- Red Right Hand: In the second season, half of the Visitor's Double's face is literally bloody red.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: All the events of the first season are rebooted at the end of the last episode. Despite the Visitor's telling Raph that nobody would remember anything, he, Raph, Tim and Leo do... even the events which haven't technically happened yet ! (Although not all of them are able to understand everything...)
- However, Judith and Matteo had their own timelines changed, and as such have no memories. Except some fragments, sometimes, when they're dreaming or inebriated.
- Robot Buddy: Henri Castafolte's Castabot.
- Robotic Reveal: At least once each episode featuring a Henri Castafolte. The realization usually comes after seeing the barcode on his forearm, but sometimes also occurs when he is shot and doesn't bleed or feel pain.
- Rule 34: L'Enfoutreur du futur ("the Fucker from the Future"), a porn self-parody of the show featured in an episode (a Raph's dream).
- Running Gag
- The Visitor's sudden apparitions to explain what will happen if the person he's talking to doesn't follow his advice.
- The Henri Castafolte robots Heroic BSoD when they discover they are robots.
- Sarcastic Clapping: Judith twice in her first
threesome at the beginning of season 2. - Sawed-Off Shotgun: Weapon of choice of the Visitor's Double in the second season.
- Saying Too Much: Visitor: "All I was trying to do from the beginning was to prevent Raph from creating the Time Police!"
- Scare Chord: Played when the Visitor from the Future appears in the first episodes.
- Scenery Gorn: The scenes happening in the Visitor's present.
- Series Fauxnale: François Descraques claims that he intended the second season to be the last and put all his effort in the finale but after a while he decided to renew with the third season. And again the third season finale that really feels like the end but a fourth season has been announced. Ironically, the fourth season finale is the actual end of the series as a webseries, but ends with several Sequel Hooks.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: What the Visitor is trying to do.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The Visitor and his gang spend most of fourth season to steal the Queen's necklace that's actually a processor for the time machine in order to go back in 2014. When they got it, Castafolt realizes that it is uncompatible with the machine.
- Space Clothes: Totally averted in the Visitor's present, where everyone wears rags resembling contemporary clothing. The same is true in the present of the Time Police: Mattéo and Judith both wear formal clothes. The former wears a uniform resembling that of a French policeman with a few electronic gears and the later a skirt, shirt and jacket exactly like a businesswoman. Played straight with Judith and Mattéo in the second season, where the former wears a stripperiffic outfit and the latter a kind of futuristic military body armour. After joining the Missionaries, Mattéo wears an even more futuristic body armour..
- Stalker with a Crush: Raph to Stella, in a very mild way.
- Stripperiffic
- Judith, sometimes.
- The waitresses in the restaurant owned by Henri Bouchard.
- Take This Job and Shove It: when the heads of the Time Police reveal to one of their agents that he was deliberately sent on a Failure Gambit or two because he was just incompetent enough to fail and his failures were Just as Planned, he decides to quit and tells his bosses to take this job and shove it. They planned for this too... They didn't plan for him to actually interfere in their final gambit, effectively firing them instead.
- Taking the Bullet: The Castabot helped Henri Castafolte to escape by taking a bullet fired by the Lombardis.
- Time Police
- The main antagonists from episode 5 to the end of the first season.
- In the second season, the Lombardis' goal is to create one.
- In the third season, one of Joseph's real objectives is to create one as well.
- In the fourth season final, Constance tells that time travelling to abort disasters is too inefficient, and changes the Missionaries' goal to become one.
- Toilet Humour
- One of the Visitor's early warnings is that a future economic disaster will be triggered because Raph will get really bad diarrhea after eating tainted pizza.
- In the first season, the Visitor often has to poop after using time travel.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Henri Castafolte in season 3.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Subverted. Raph tries to prevent the ancestor of the Visitor from meeting the mother of his future child. After revealing that he is the Visitor posing as his ancestor, he tells Raph: "You thought my ancestor had the same face as me? That's completely dumb."
- The Unreveal
- The Visitor's name. It is actually revealed in the very last episode of the series.
- Most of what happened in the future, especially what led to a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Visitor and his gang. Their actions basically consist in annoying (and sometimes ruining the lives of) some people for the greater good (i.e. making disasters disappear in the Visitor's present). It works sometimes.
- Wham Episode: Several in season 3:
- Episode 6: The missionaires finally show their true colors, Sarah Lombardi is a part of the organisation and is working with their leader, and the Visitor is sent to the necrophiliac prison along with Constance.
- Episode 7: Sarah Lombardi stabs Judith.
- Episode 8: Dario kills Judith.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Usually averted with the Henri Castafolte, although he is sometimes suggested as a Bulletproof Human Shield. Played straight with the Castabot and the zombies.
- Zombie Apocalypse: One happened some time before the Visitor's present, but there is very little information about the details.
