Time Travel & Fix-It Tags on AO3
Time loops, second chances, and the fics that go back to fix what canon broke.
When canon ends in tragedy, fandom invents a way back. The time-travel family of tags covers every method of rewinding the story — a literal loop, a consciousness sent into a younger body, a do-over granted by some cosmic accident — usually in service of a Fix-It that spares the characters their canonical fate.
These fics scratch a very particular itch: the wish to give beloved characters the knowledge and the chance to choose differently. Knowing the tags helps you find the flavor you want, from lighthearted Groundhog Day loops to grim, hard-won second chances.
The 22 tags in this group
Age Regression/De-Aging
The canonical tag for characters made young again — by curse, potion, tech accident, or psychological regression.
Alternate Ending
A canonical tag for works rewriting how something ended, whether canon's finale or the author's own earlier story.
Alternate Timelines
Handles branched chronology explicitly: timelines split by time travel, choices, or cosmic accident, often with characters aware of — or haunted by — the other branch.
Alternate Universe - 1980s
Rewinds to mixtapes, mall food courts, arcade cabinets, and synth on every radio.
Alternate Universe - Time Travel
Builds the premise around time displacement — a character thrown into the past or future, timelines rewritten, or travelers meeting people decades out of their own era.
Canonical Character Death
A canonical tag indicating the death in the fic is one that actually happens in the source material; the author is depicting or dealing with canon's casualty rather than inventing a new one.
Crossover
Brings two or more separate canons into contact: the detective meets the time traveler, the starship picks up a wizard, two unrelated casts discover they share a city.
Everybody Lives
The maximalist fix-it promise: nobody dies in this one.
Fix-It
Fandom's repair shop: a fic that rewrites a canon event the author (and usually the fandom) considers a mistake — a death undone, a breakup averted, a finale done right.
Fix-It of Sorts
A hedged fix-it: the fic repairs some canon damage but not all of it, or fixes things in a complicated, partial, or sideways manner.
Kid Fic
The canonical tag for fic featuring characters raising or caring for children — their own, adopted, acquired by plot contrivance, or de-aged teammates.
Not A Fix-It
A defensive tag that appears after devastating canon events, when readers flood the archive hoping for repairs.
Personal Growth
A tag flagging that a character will be measurably better by the final chapter — habits broken, apologies made, emotional skills painstakingly acquired.
Regulus Black Lives
Fics where Sirius's younger brother survives the cave and the Inferi, a premise that exploded alongside Marauders-era fandom's growth.
Second Chances
The hope-shaped tag: someone gets another shot — at a relationship, at making things right, at a life that went sideways.
Sirius Black Lives
A fix-it premise where Sirius survives the Department of Mysteries — or never falls through the Veil at all.
Temporary Character Death
A merciful spoiler: a character dies, but it doesn't stick.
Time Loop
Traps a character in a repeating stretch of time — usually one day — that resets until they figure out how to break it.
Time Skips
A structural tag warning that the narrative jumps across time — months or years passing between scenes or chapters rather than continuous chronology.
Time Travel
Moves a character through time by any mechanism canon or author provides — accidents, artifacts, dying and waking up in the past.
Time Travel Fix-It
The combination engine of two beloved tags: someone goes back in time specifically to repair canon's tragedies.
Tony Stark Needs a Hug
One of the MCU fandom's defining tags, marking stories about Tony's unaddressed trauma, self-loathing, and the affection everyone forgets to give him.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a fix-it fic?
A story written to 'fix' something the canon did — usually a character death or a tragic ending — by changing events so it never happens. Time travel is the most common mechanism, but not the only one.
What does Peggy Sue mean as a tag?
It's fandom slang (from a Harry Potter fic and the film Peggy Sue Got Married) for a story where a character travels back into their own younger body, keeping their memories of the future.
Related Tag Guides
Hurt/Comfort Tags
The tags that lead to whump, caretaking, and recovery — and how to tell them apart when you want someone to suffer and then be looked after.
Angst & Emotional Pain Tags
Tags that promise emotional heavy lifting — angst, grief, heartbreak, and the all-important question of whether comfort ever arrives.
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