#51: Time Travel

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  Not only is this cliche so heavily used, but it is one of the most risky elements you could add to a story's plot.  If not used right, time travel stories can get extremely confusing and frustrating to the audience.  The reason for this is the writer's inability to make any slight changes in a time line make sense.  Thus, it usually ends up ruining what could have been a great story.  One of the greatest sufferers of this cliche was Lost, which after its third or fourth season relied on time travel too much.  However, there are some cases where time travel really can improve the quality of a story, thus making it more memorable.  The video game Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky did the time travel trope perfectly, thus making it considered the most memorable game of the Pokemon spin-off series.  It is really a huge risk to use this trope either way, so only use it when you know you can do it right.

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