Heroes 10 - on Time Travel
Ok, so my latest reaction post about this episode was very short and empty, because the only thing on my mind was "omg they failed the time paradox explanation", which was what I'd been waiting for since the week before...
I still liked Nathan a lot, he's a nice guy, touched his brother all the time, lots of humour, righteous prosecutor son of a lawyer (Edgeworth, kyaaaaaah!) who painfully decides to prosecute his own father who deserves it, but then gets his father 'killed' (?) gets his wife crippled because of Lindermann and his power switching on, and is forced to work for Lindermann just like his father did, to protect his family, and is rejecting his power and his brother's freedom and everything... Awww...
I liked Hiro and Charlie, even if they're a bit strange sometimes. I'm still totally uninterested in Niki/Jessica. Claire is so cute, I can't believe I hated her so much in the pilot. Sylar is creepy, I like that! *o*
But, to the point. Time travel.
I was really disappointed when they didn't explain anything, and things didn't seem logical at all. Like, why do things change around Ando if he's still waiting for Hiro like before anything changed?
I was a bit angry at the Heroes writers.
Then I did a bit of research. (Wikipedia is my friend)
They use a Mutable Timeline, a Relative Timeline with Restricted Action.
Not Parallel Timelines like I'm used to.
I was thinking in the easy Parallel Timeline theory. Like with Trunks in Dragon Ball. He lives with his mother in a future where everyone has been killed. He goes back to the past, saves everyone, and then goes back to his own time. To his mother waiting for him in a devastated world, because that is HIS timeline, the happy one is a PARALLEL universe he has created.
This is not the case in Heroes.
Hiro lives with Ando in a world where Charlie has been killed. He goes back to the past, and we notice that Ando's environment changes. Hiro changes things in Charlie's life, goes back to his time, and his time has changed a little, it is not a different timeline because in a different timeline there would be another Hiro somewhere, and Ando wouldn't be waiting, or.... I was so confused.
With the "self-healing" timeline theory, all becomes clear. Any changes that Hiro inflicts on History gets "healed" one way or another, Nature resists change. This is why his actions only affects as little people as possible. He buys a japanese book for Charlie? The original present giver gets another idea instead. He saves Charlie from Sylar? She gets an aneurysm. He calls himself on the phone? His self doesn't recognise him. In the end, only the birthday photo, Charlie's boss' memory and the shrine she built for her are modified. Ando's memory is intact (because he can understand the differences between his memory and reality), the cops and Sylar will have stayed home and done nothing particularly important instead, and voilà! History healed itself the best it could, and Hiro failed miserably because he's not strong enough against it.
He can change History. But meaningful changes will be difficult, as we saw. And dangerous, because there is only ONE timeline, so what if he gets his old self killed?
I hope they'll give us more about this.
I still liked Nathan a lot, he's a nice guy, touched his brother all the time, lots of humour, righteous prosecutor son of a lawyer (Edgeworth, kyaaaaaah!) who painfully decides to prosecute his own father who deserves it, but then gets his father 'killed' (?) gets his wife crippled because of Lindermann and his power switching on, and is forced to work for Lindermann just like his father did, to protect his family, and is rejecting his power and his brother's freedom and everything... Awww...
I liked Hiro and Charlie, even if they're a bit strange sometimes. I'm still totally uninterested in Niki/Jessica. Claire is so cute, I can't believe I hated her so much in the pilot. Sylar is creepy, I like that! *o*
But, to the point. Time travel.
I was really disappointed when they didn't explain anything, and things didn't seem logical at all. Like, why do things change around Ando if he's still waiting for Hiro like before anything changed?
I was a bit angry at the Heroes writers.
Then I did a bit of research. (Wikipedia is my friend)
They use a Mutable Timeline, a Relative Timeline with Restricted Action.
Not Parallel Timelines like I'm used to.
I was thinking in the easy Parallel Timeline theory. Like with Trunks in Dragon Ball. He lives with his mother in a future where everyone has been killed. He goes back to the past, saves everyone, and then goes back to his own time. To his mother waiting for him in a devastated world, because that is HIS timeline, the happy one is a PARALLEL universe he has created.
This is not the case in Heroes.
Hiro lives with Ando in a world where Charlie has been killed. He goes back to the past, and we notice that Ando's environment changes. Hiro changes things in Charlie's life, goes back to his time, and his time has changed a little, it is not a different timeline because in a different timeline there would be another Hiro somewhere, and Ando wouldn't be waiting, or.... I was so confused.
With the "self-healing" timeline theory, all becomes clear. Any changes that Hiro inflicts on History gets "healed" one way or another, Nature resists change. This is why his actions only affects as little people as possible. He buys a japanese book for Charlie? The original present giver gets another idea instead. He saves Charlie from Sylar? She gets an aneurysm. He calls himself on the phone? His self doesn't recognise him. In the end, only the birthday photo, Charlie's boss' memory and the shrine she built for her are modified. Ando's memory is intact (because he can understand the differences between his memory and reality), the cops and Sylar will have stayed home and done nothing particularly important instead, and voilà! History healed itself the best it could, and Hiro failed miserably because he's not strong enough against it.
He can change History. But meaningful changes will be difficult, as we saw. And dangerous, because there is only ONE timeline, so what if he gets his old self killed?
I hope they'll give us more about this.