abstract
| - Who needs precognitive powers when you've got Time Travel? A character goes back to the past. From the other character's point of view, they seem to say, do and know things that imply a frighteningly accurate knowledge of the future. Of course, they do not need special powers to be able to do this -- they only need to remember, because they have already lived though it before. A variation is a character who is Trapped in the Past before their actual date of birth, but in a period that they are familiar with from history books. They may also be able to make use of a Convenient Eclipse if they remember the exact date when it is due to happen. Note that you should not even attempt this without significant historical research under your belt, and even then, people have messed around with historical dates so often during the times and truth intermingled with myth so much that it will probably not do you a lot of good anyway. (We would also mention things like the language barrier, but those belong to the main Time Travel trope.) Not to be confused with "retroactive clairvoyance", an entirely different term that has been used for the act of retrofitting vague predictions to events that have already happened. If the character relies on science and engineering from the future, rather than knowledge of the current time period, they are Giving Radio to the Romans. Examples of Retroactive Precognition include:
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