Time Travel Fanfiction, a subgenre of science fiction, is about characters who experience disruptions in the normal flow and pace of time. It can be perceived or real. Characters who are kept in stasis and do not age, but are able to awaken and “in the future”, are equally likely to fall under this broad umbrella as those who are instantly transported. This trope is popular in fanfiction and canon works.
It all depends on whether there is a single timeline (where there is only one future and one present, which could lead to problems if the traveller kills their grandfather) or multiple timelines (where the traveller technically kills RV TRAVEL WORLD an alternate universe version their grandfather). Some works combine both.
Time Physical Travel Fanfiction
Physical Time Travel Fanfiction refers to any Time Travel Fanfiction in which a character’s body and mind travel through time. Additional items, such as clothing and technology, may or not be included. The Time Travel Fanfictioner’s Wife is a story about a Time Travel Fanfictionler who arrives naked to find out if the tooth filling will travel with him.
This trope is often called peggy sue after the movie Peggy Sue Got Married. Ba’al, the Stargate: Continuum character, travels back in time, but because he is immortal, unaging, and he can kill his past self to take his place. This hits most of the mental Time Travel Fanfiction tropes rather than the physical. Travelers, a Netflix series, features Time Travel Fanfictioners in the distant future taking control of the bodies and minds of others.
Time loops
Intentional Time Travel Fanfiction is fics that are based on physical Time Travel Fanfiction. This can be even for the Traveler who is the antagonist. In which case, the plot revolves around fixing what is wrong in the past. For example, a loved one’s death or the rise and fall of an enemy they cannot defeat in the future. The author may be trying to create interactions between the traveler, and characters who are, in the current, long-dead, mortal foes, too old to ship them with comfort, or a combination thereof.
Peggy Sue fics are where the Time Travel Fanfictionler has an extensive to-do-list of things they want to do this time. The peggy sue is often drawn from a grimdark, quasi or literally post-apocalyptic timeline where everyone is either dead or dying in order to justify their timeline and/or add tension or angst. Sometimes, the peggy sue character must deal with having to suddenly have a child again, meeting long-dead loved one, or having faded memories that make it difficult to pretend to be their past self.