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How nostalgic. So that's how weak I used to be.
Ohma Zi-O during his first confrontation with his present-self, Sougo Tokiwa., Kamen Rider Zi-O
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The future is uncertain, this even applies to heroes and their path depends on it whether they continue to fight evil and helping those in need, believing that power comes great responsibility, or let their ambition and pride consume them, using their powers for their selfish ends, tragic circumstances driving them into Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. In both ways, fate is toying with that hero's future into becoming the same monster they sought to eliminate. People from the future and/or Alternate Universe would come after that future villain's younger self seeking to either take them out before their eventual descent to villainy, or have them travel in time and see their future self becoming Drunk with Power and took on a dark path and lost his sense of heroism and decided to Take Over the World; becoming a tyrannical despot or just bent in causing death and destruction around the world, so much so that even other villains are repulsed by the Fallen Hero's actions they had to band with other villains.

The presence of Time Travel is quintessential for the present-day hero to learn more of his future self's motives, the present-day hero is forced to travel years into the future to look at the damage their future self has done before confronting them. When finally understanding what their future self is after, they must go to great lengths to stop them whether or not if they are destined to become just like their villainous future self or Screw Destiny because the future isn't yet set in stone.

A sub-trope of Fallen Hero, Future Badass, Future Me Scares Me (or Evil Me Scares Me for a non-time travel variant). Compare Protagonist Journey to Villain, if the hero in question's descent into villainy being fleshed out before being introduced as a villain.

Examples of Present-Day Hero, Future Villain include:

Advertising[]

Anime and Manga[]

Comic Books[]

  • Lord Drakkon from the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers comics series by BOOM! Studios is an older Tommy Oliver from a dystopian alternate future where he doesn't join the team after being broken free of Rita Repulsa's control and subsequently swore loyalty to in his own volition. In the process, he allows Rita to succeed in conquering Earth, having killed most of the opposing Power Rangers, including Jason, Billy, and mentor Zordon before killing Rita himself. He weaponizes the Morphin' Grid to turn Power Rangers into a military force. And by kicking off the Shattered Grid arc, he kills the main timeline Tommy Oliver, and proceeds to do so with the other Tommies of other Alternate Universes.
  • "Beyond the Fourth Wall" in The Unbelievable Gwenpool sees Gwenpool face off against a future version of herself, one that's gone Drunk with Power and sees the Marvel Universe as simply toys for her to play with. And while Gwenpool isn't quite a hero, she is appalled by what she may one day grow into.
  • Marvel Comics villain Maestro is an evil version of the Incredible Hulk hailing from a Bad Future.

Fan Works[]

Film[]

  • In Lightyear, Zurg is a future version of Buzz Lightyear. Unable to shake his Determinator attitude, Buzz fled into the future following the new government of the colony turning against him and discovered a discarded ship. Though he tried to use its advanced tech to time travel back to his initial mistake, his Power Crystal burnt out from overuse in transit, forcing Zurg to steal his past self's version.

Literature[]

Live-Action TV[]

  • Kamen Rider Zi-O: The entire plot of the series is two members of a resistance group from the year 2068 going back 50 years in the past to prevent the rise of Ohma Zi-O, as a result of the eponymous Rider's ambition to become a king who collects the powers of all Heisei Kamen Riders. Sougo himself is forced to confront his future self in many occasions, re-affirming not to become like him. In the finale, when all of his friends seemingly perish at the Big Bad's hands, Sougo does become Ohma Zi-O, but decides to sacrifice its power to reset the timeline back to the way they were.

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Newspaper Comics[]

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends[]

Pinball[]

Podcasts[]

Professional Wrestling[]

Puppet Shows[]

Radio[]

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy[]

Tabletop Games[]

Theatre[]

Video Games[]

  • Injustice: Gods Among Us: The Superman of the Injustice Universe is a totalitarian ruler of that Alternate Universe thanks to The Joker using a fear gas laced with Kryptonite and nuked the entire Metropolis, which killed Lois Lane, his wife, along with their unborn child. In retaliation, Superman kills the Clown Prince of Crime while being interrogated by Batman, in the process forming a crack in the Justice League with Superman forming his Regime faction where he rids the world of crime through an iron-fisted tyranny, this even drew the ire of both heroes and villains alike from the main DC universe where the Injustice Batman brought in the prime universe Batman, Superman and the other Justice League to deal with the Regime Superman. By Injustice 2, Superman gets even worse when faced with the dilemma of deciding Brainiac's fate near the end of the game.


Visual Novels[]

  • Downplayed in Fate/stay night with Archer, who happens to be Shirou Emiya from a Bad Future whose idealism and hope were crushed. While not a villain, per se, Archer openly shows his contempt for Shirou's idealism and naivete and makes no attempt of killing him to escape his fate.

Web Animation[]

Web Comics[]

Web Original[]

Western Animation[]

  • Danny Phantom: Dark Danny from the TV movie, "The Ultimate Enemy". He is the result of Danny's ghost half fusing with Vlad Plasmius's own ghost half after Danny lost his family, friends, and teacher Mr. Lancer in an explosion at the abandoned Nasty Burger. Following the merger, Dark Danny began a decade of endless quest for death and destruction to the point the other villainous ghosts are terrified of him and forced to take a stand against him and having Clockwork to eliminate the young Danny Fenton before Dark Danny could come to existence. And the real kicker, the tragedy behind Dark Danny's creation is the result of Danny using his ghost powers to cheat on a career aptitude test!
  • Ben 10: Ultimate Alien reveals Eon to be a potential future of Ben's who has been travelling the multiverse trying to ensure that he's the only Ben in existence.
  • In War for Cybertron, Optimus Prime, is always, the Big Good. But this one fears that he will one day give into his darker impulses and, like his old friend Megatron, become the type of tyrant that he once fought against. And the third season sees him go up against this dark future self, Nemesis Prime.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man: The Arc Villain of the Return to Spider-Verse episodes, Wolf Spider is basically Peter Parker, believing With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility as non-existent, decides to rule the multiverses with an iron fist and seeks to erase every single Spider-Men in existence so he could be the only Peter Parker standing. Not to mention, he is one of the few Spider-Man villains to impose a threat at a multiversal scale.

Other Media[]

Real Life[]