Narrative Complications

In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, Manse Everard's four encounters with the Exaltationist time criminals happen in the same order for him as for them, thus avoiding any further narrative complications. There could be a time travel series in which (younger) hero kills (older) villain, then (younger) villain kills (older) hero.

In Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife, Henry and Clare's meetings do not happen in the same order for both of them. For the first time in his life, Henry meets a young woman who tells him that he had visited her many times in her childhood and had told her that they would be married in their shared futures. The first time young Clare finds Henry in her garden is not the first time Henry meets Clare there. When it is his first time, she already knows the score and is able to reassure him. When it is Clare's first time, Henry does not know whether it is her first time yet or whether he should remain hidden but she hears him and throws her shoe, thinking that he is her brother. When Henry returns to his wife with a bleeding lip, she has no memory of having thrown a shoe at him. Audrey Niffenegger has full control of a time travel narrative.

Henry DeTamble, like Anderson's Jack Havig, helps his younger self. Young Jack has an "Uncle Jack." Young Henry meets an adult time traveller who is also called Henry.