http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BornInTheWrongCentury

Dwight McCarthy, Sin City , "A Dame to Kill For" "Most people think Marv is crazy. He just had the rotten luck of being born in the wrong century. He would've been right at home on some ancient battlefield, swinging an axe into somebody's face. Or in a Roman arena taking a sword to other gladiators like him. They'd have tossed him girls like Nancy back then."

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There's a certain type of character who yearns for Ye Goode Olde Days, when things were more exciting, or simpler, or better in some other way. Or maybe they feel they'd fit in better in a time other than their own. Or maybe they're just history buffs and would like to have been around when all that history was happening. Maybe it's the romance they miss.

Or maybe the character is an inventor ahead of their time who just can't convince anyone that their crazy ideas could make a benefit for mankind, or a sci-fi buff who only wishes that all those stories about spaceships and flying cars were real, or a subculture waiting for the time when the world will be ready for them.

No matter what the reason, though, this character feels that they were born in the wrong century.

Characters of this sort often find themselves involved in Time Travel adventures — maybe they jump at the chance to test out some new time travel technology; maybe they're selected because their knowledge of the era will be useful to their fellow time travelers; maybe they just want to travel through time so badly that the fabric of spacetime folds itself for them for no adequately explained reason. Sometimes, these characters learn that the time they wanted to live in isn't so great after all, but just as often they don't. If so, they may choose to stay.

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Note that this trope usually involves characters who live in modern industrialized democracies where they have a great deal of freedom and luxuries, which can make their nostalgia hard to take seriously. Characters from a crapsack country ravaged by plague, famine, or an evil dictator, are probably justified in feeling this way, but are rarely depicted unless they live in a future dystopia. Alternatively, like in the page quote, these characters are people who would like to return to a time when physical violence was a good pathway to fame and fortune.

Meanwhile, outside of science fiction and fantasy, characters like this are just stuck in the present day. Sucks to be them.

Such people do exist in Real Life, by the way; the time travel part, on the other hand, is probably not Truth in Television. Compare with Fan of the Past and Disco Dan. See also Nostalgia Ain't Like It Used to Be for cases governed by Nostalgia Filter or The Theme Park Version of "Ye Goode Olde Days".

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Examples With Time Travel

Anime and Manga

Nobita in Doraemon was pretty much a loser in his time where his only useful skill is his super-accurate marksmanship. In the stories in which he Time Travels to The Wild West, he often ended up becoming a hero due to said-marksmanship which drove away the bandits.

Yuri, of Anatolia Story, is a more understated instance of this trope. While she enjoys life in her own time and country, she is spirited away to and grows to love Anatolia so much that she gives up her last chance to go home, in favor of staying . She does use more modern discoveries while there, among them ideas like keeping the injured and sick in sanitary conditions, but she also connects insanely to the land, the people, and the culture. Note that despite time travel being possible in this world, Kail himself is an example of the second form of this trope. While he's not able to travel to present times, a lot of his viewpoints (citizens being treated equally, being monogamous in marriage, etc.) are ones that would be perfectly normal in modern times but pretty unusual in his time.

. She does use more modern discoveries while there, among them ideas like keeping the injured and sick in sanitary conditions, but she also connects insanely to the land, the people, and the culture. Note that despite time travel being possible in this world, Kail himself is an example of the second form of this trope. While he's not able to travel to present times, a lot of his viewpoints (citizens being treated equally, being monogamous in marriage, etc.) are ones that would be perfectly normal in modern times but pretty unusual in his time. Vinland Saga, set at the time of Vikings, briefly features a character that still lives as if the Roman Empire never ended.

Comic Books

The Marquis de Sade in The Invisibles: Locked up for obscenity in the 18th century, he finds himself embraced with open arms by the fetish club scene of present-day San Francisco.

Not exactly time travel but close enough. Travis Morgan, The Warlord, was a lot happier in the savage Lost World of Skartaris than he ever had been in the 20th century.

Working for Oracle, before the New 52, in Birds of Prey is Zinda Blake, better known as Lady Blackhawk, a fighter pilot and hero from the 1950s who found herself in the modern day after a time warp sends her forward several decades. Due to her highly liberal and controversial beliefs, such as her determination to become a fighter pilot, she finds herself much more comfortable in the modern day DC Universe than she did back in her own era. The only notable problems she seems to have is that her taste in music is a few decades behind the times, and she can hardly get anybody to honor her senior citizens discount.

In a Batman and Martian Manhunter team-up in Detective Comics in 1997, Wally Dalbert, a 27th century thief who committed his crimes by travelling backwards in time but had no way of travelling forwards, eventually settled to become a philanthropist in 19th century Gotham, where he had previously indicated he would feel more at home.

Subverted by time-travelling foes of The Flash, Abra Kadabra and Professor Zoom, who travelled to the 20th century because they felt out of place in their own eras, and turned out not to fit in very well there either.

Played with in the case of Klara Prast of the Runaways, who travelled forward in time from the early 20th century to the early 21st. On the one hand, she doesn't miss her old life of being married to (and exploited by) her abusive alcoholic husband at the age of eleven, or the persecution she used to suffer because of her plant-controlling abilities. On the other hand, she finds many aspects of the modern world baffling (it doesn't help that her guide to the modern world is Molly Hayes, whose own understanding of the world is rather spotty.)

Fanfiction

Several characters in Children of Time. The story takes Sally Sparrow's attraction to old things and fleshes it out, to the point where she's a history major. Which is terribly convenient, since she marries Dr. Watson and lives the rest of her life in the first half of the twentieth century . Beth Lestrade and her father, Michael, are big history buffs, especially regarding Victorian Britain. Justified in that they're descended from the original Inspector Lestrade.

In Memento Vivere, a Final Fantasy X fanfiction, Rikku feels this way initially, then grows to regret it when she gets her wish.

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

"Tribute To The Past" by Gamma Ray. Prepared to go where my heart belongs — back to the past again

The protagonist of the Tony Banks song "Throwback": I walk the backstreets Of every dirty city, searching for the route That leads me back to where I belong I don't know how, but I'm trapped in the wrong time If you know someplace I can go Then I ask you, lead me to the door!

It has been said that Nick Drake would have been better off in Elizabethan England rather than the 1960s-1970s. He was known for his love of the poet John Keats.

In "A Pirate Looks At 40" by Jimmy Buffett, the protagonist claims to be two hundred years late for The Golden Age of Piracy.

Webcomics

Van Rijn from Girl Genius he died 200 years before the events of the story and, the exquisite craftsmanship and intricacy of his Muses remain unsurpassed by other clank designers. He was also able to make sentient clanks, something that's considered widely to be impossible even 200 years later. Although there have been hints he got a leg up thanks to his conversations with The Muse of Time .

. Hatsune Rondo of Mayonaka Densha pines for 19th century London as she has become disenchanted with modern day Japan, and also wishes to escape from her unhappy home life. While she does get her wish and meets a dashing hero in typical romance novel fashion and meets her hero Sherlock Holmes when she gets there, living in Victorian London seems to be frequently costing her large chunks of her sanity. Hatsune is constantly exposed to dismembered corpses, attacked, tortured and almost violated by criminals and forced to confront traumas from her life back in the present day. And it turns out her dashing hero is just as lonely and insecure as she is. Yet she still prefers it to her own time.

Western Animation

Fry of Futurama states at one point that he's much more comfortable in the future (i.e., the show's present) than he had been in the 20th century. This is displayed several times, particularly the episode with his "girlfriend"; indeed, one of the first things he does on realizing he's in the future is realize that everyone he ever knew is dead, and then cheer — and while he later laments this fact, he quickly gets over it. This was actually a surprise to the creators; much of the humor planned for the show was going to be Fry failing to fit in with the world of the 31st century, but when they realized that Fry was adjusting so well they had to switch to other joke vectors quicker than anticipated.

Time Squad: The two of the main characters share a fondness for another time; Buck Tuddrussel has a genuine interest for the days of when America was settling the Wild West in the 19th century, and gets teary eyed when able to experience it for himself. Otto is perfectly happy with living a million years into the future, as he had no real chance of a good life of his own in the 21st century. But even though he has a well rounded knowledge on history, he shows a very passionate interest in Colonial/Revolutionary War era America, with some of his heroes being George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

Used twice with Jebidiah Townhouse in Regular Show, who was born during the early 1800's and always acted like he was in the 1980's the locals disapproved of this, so he decided to travel 200 years into the future, where his style is considered as old.

Examples Without Time Travel

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Fan Works

The Great Alicorn Hunt: The minor draconequus Malfunziona was most definitely this. Since he is a lesser being than a normal draconequus like Discord, his powers are more specific — he can only grow in power by breaking complex machinery, and the power he gains is directly proportional to the complexity of the device. Since he was active in a pre-industrialized Equestria, where the most complex machinery were farming tools and the like, he was only a nuisance at best. Eventually, he invaded the workshop of a Leonardo da Vinci-expy, Bold Lion, to get something of a power-up (as an inventor's home would be the only place where he could find any machinery of significance), only to be sealed away. Cue several centuries later, in the modern day, where he's released. It took him only an hour to become as powerful as Discord and the Princesses (aided by the fact that he was released at a technology expo), and had he gotten out into the city he would've been nigh-unstoppable.

In Flight has Shirou musing that Karasuba would have been hailed as a hero and great warrior if she had been born an Amazon in Ancient Greece or a fighter in mythological Ireland. In the modern era, she only scares and unsettles people by her bloodlust.

Terrence Higgs from Black Sky has a very medieval, courtly relationship with Dorea Black. When he decides to forever swear himself to her as a loyal liege, she laments he ought to have been a resident of King Arthur's Camelot.

Lenora in Dear Diary is portrayed as someone whose interest in history makes her wish that Pokémon battles were life-or-death battles of honor like they were in the past. This makes her The Dreaded as a Gym Leader and puts her at odds with reformers who would prefer the league would be more regulated.

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

Unsurprisingly, given that it's by Ronnie James Dio, the Black Sabbath song "Falling Off the Edge of the World" seems to be about this: I'm living well out of my time I feel like I'm losing my mind I should be at the table round a servant of the crown the keeper of the sign to sparkle and to shine...

"Born Too Late" by Saint Vitus.

Sandi Thom's "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)" . She pretty much wishes she was born a few decades earlier so she could have been a hippie or a punk rocker. Or both.

. She pretty much wishes she was born a few decades earlier so she could have been a hippie or a punk rocker. Or both. While his voice was quite suitable for what he did, Pissy (best known as a member of Intestinal Disgorge) also showed at points that he was quite fit to sing Hair Metal or Disco. The Howling Void, said band's frontman, occasionally displays his interest in Elizabethan-era writing. Prior to the release of "Dripping in Quiet Places," he began quoting passages from The 120 Days of Sodom on the band's Facebook page.

Jimmy Buffett's "A Pirate Looks At 40" Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late The cannons don't thunder, there's nothin' to plunder I'm an over-forty victim of fate Arriving too late, arriving too late

Mentioned in the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" I wish that I was born a thousand years ago I wish that I'd sailed the darkened seas On a great big clipper ship Going from this land here to that On a sailor's suit and cap

Newspaper Comics

Maakies author (or at least a stand-in for him) Tony Millionaire wishes he'd been born in the past. He perks up at what sounds like a horse-drawn carriage, but it's only a dominatrix taking her be-hooved gimp for a walk .

. Calvin and Hobbes: Due to his dad's technophobia, Calvin remarked (in the 20th century) that he's "a 21st-century kid in a 19th-century family". Calvin: Yesterday Dad went to buy a hardcover novel. He said he wanted to read something long, rich and thought-provoking for a change, and he wanted a cloth binding so his book could be carried around and reread later. Then he said he was going to buy the book with cash, so nobody could trace the purchase to him and exploit his interest for commercial purposes. Hobbes: Your dad's going into the future kicking and screaming, isn't he? To hear Hobbes tell it, Calvin himself should have been born in the 70s: Calvin: I hate hearing about social responsibility! Whatever happened to unbridled greed, the I hate hearing about social responsibility! Whatever happened to unbridled greed, the conspicuous consumption of wealth, and the get-ahead-by-any-means credo?? Don't tell me it's all over! I didn't get to participate! They can't change the game before I'm old enough to play! It's not fair! Hobbes: The "me decade" left without its poster child.



Radio

Sketch comedy show Son of Cliché used a wrong century gag about Margaret Thatcher. Mrs Thatcher was elected on the strength of promises to take Britain back to the Fifties. It wasn't until she reintroduced the Black Death, feudalism, and burning at the stake, that people realised she actually meant the 1450's.

Roleplay

Panopticon Quest: Jamelia muses that Siddharth and his hardline anti-Reality Deviant views would have been perfectly at home in the pogrom-happy pre-1999 Technocracy.

Theater

From William Shakespeare we get Prince Hamlet, who famously said "the time is out of joint, o cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right," which roughly translates to the trope name.

Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado has the song "As someday it may happen" a.k.a. "I've got a little list" which mocks this: one of the types of people on the list is "the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone, All centuries but this, and every country but his own..."

Video Games

Visual Novels

Rin Tohsaka from Fate/stay night. Apparently being a magus means that you won't have any contact with technology, since she doesn't even know what a VCR is! Technophobia is trait common to most Association mages in the Nasuverse. The only mages shown to employ technology have been renegades of one kind or another, such as Shirou and Kiritsugu.

The Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair character Peko has exactly the skills and mindset of a traditional samurai (in part because she was raised to serve a yakuza organization ), but was born in modern times. Her ruthlessness and lack of self kinda freaks out the other teenagers. Even her execution cutscene is animated in ink-lined, woodblock style.

Webcomics

Websites

Brutally mocked and deconstructed in the CollegeHumor sketch, No, You Werent Born in the Wrong Decade . Katie repeatedly tries to claim this, only for Trapp to point out the horrible downside to whatever time period she names. When she tries to gloss those parts over he points out that she doesn't get to only have the good parts of whatever time she is thinking of, and that even if the present isn't perfect it's still objectively better than it was in the past.

Web Videos

Windsong on NoPixel fancies herself as a late-1960s acolyte in the modern day. She wouldn't look out of place at Woodstock and only listens to Sixties/Seventies psychedelic rock despite never having even lived in those decades. That said, she's also a bit of a hypocrite; she happily drives a modern electric car and uses a smartphone on a daily basis.

Western Animation

Captain Fanzone of Transformers Animated frequently reminds us how much he hates machines and is once shown using a rotary cell phone the size of a 1980s "Brick phone", and the show is set at least a fifty years in the future. Hell, his Catchphrase is "This is why I hate machines!"

Hank Hill of King of the Hill. He often laments about how everyone has forgotten the values he once believed in, like modesty, decency, and plain old common sense.

Sev'ral Timez from Gravity Falls, a Boy Band whose members all act as though they debuted in the late 90s or early 2000s despite the show being set in the year 2012. Dipper even calls them "the boy band that came a decade too late".

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! live like it's the Age Of Sail even though it's the early Victorian Era. Queen Victoria, in the final scene, explains to them that the reason for her hatred of pirates is this - they are a relic of another time.

Wirt from Over the Garden Wall. He's a sensitive, artistic boy who writes poetry, plays the clarinet, and is knowledgeable on classical architecture. Despite the show being set nebulously in the Antebellum period of American history, Wirt and Greg are actually from, at the absolute earliest, the mid-1980s .

. Ben 10 (2016) gives us Steam Smythe, a villain who speaks like someone from the 19th century, and is fixated on reverting the world back to the way it was in the early 20th century (at the latest).

Bob's Burgers: In "Zero LARP Thirty", Linda is a fan of the period drama "Winthorpe Manor" and says she was born in the wrong century. She changes her mind when she participates in a "Winthorpe Manor" LARP as a maid and sees how bad life was for most people.

Real Life