On time travel
While browsing TV Tropes I came across a link. As you do. It led me to a rather long, very detailed article explaining all the weird anomalies time travel creates in the first two Terminator films. Actually, it rather makes sense to me! I am not near enough of a sci-fi fan to know how well the theories stack up with general time-travel theories, because it all makes my brain explode a little.
"Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies Unravels 'The Terminator'".
IN SHORT FORM, the two movies do not create a "stable time loop" -- that is, that B causes A and it's all neat and pat and there is no real "beginning" to anything. This is what I have always assumed, which may be why I get a glazed expression thinking about the canon too long. The writer says that everything that happens is a result of different timelines (which we do not see). Characters mess with those timelines (which is their past), but by doing so create more, alternate timelines.
So basically, the Terminator canon is made up of like 10 alternate timelines, of which we only see perhaps two.
The following is a summary of how the writer broke down the alternate timelines.
Timeine A (original): Sarah Connor has a normal life, has a kid by a man whom she possibly marries. An unknown dude creates Skynet in the far future. Armageddon occurs. The Connor child becomes a natural leader in this crisis.
Timeline B: Skynet sends a Terminator to kill Sarah Connor. It fails -- or rather, it fails at preventing John's birth. His father may be a different person than in Timeline A. Sarah Connor is possibly killed.
Timeline C, "The Terminator": B!John dislikes that future, and wants to save his mother. So he sends back Kyle Reese. Kyle Reese unwittingly becomes C!John's new father. The leftover Terminator parts from the end of the film jump-start Skynet earlier than in Timeline A or B.
Timeline D: Skynet realizes that its primary antagonist is John Connor, so it sends back a Terminator to kill him. Presumably, it fails. The writer theorizes that Sarah Connor is killed, as the T-1000's secondary mission was to capture her to use her as bait.
Timeline E, "Terminator 2": D!John knows he needs help to save his mother, so he sends back a reprogrammed T-800 to help his younger self. Sarah Connor is saved. She goes on to destroy Cyberdyne Systems, which created Skynet from the Terminator parts in Timeline C. However, doing that only pushes back the date of Judgment Day; there is still an unknown company out there, Cyberdyne's competitor, which may create Skynet by natural advancement of technology.
Presumably, future-E!John knows this. By now the timelines have become muddled so that if there is no war in the future, he cannot send Kyle Reese back to become his father, so the war must happen. (Destroying this possibility creates something called an "infinity loop" I'M JUST THROWING IT OUT THERE, I really do not have much of an idea what it means.) So he programs the T-800 with false information, so that Sarah Connor believes she stops the war when she blows up Cyberdyne.
Unknown company (I think Terminator 3 makes it the military) thus creates technology that becomes Skynet, which becomes self-aware, which results in a war between machines and humans.
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One person in TV Tropes believes that the Terminator franchise is a stable time loop. The Resistance is actively lying about the date of Judgment Day to maintain a timeline in which they win.
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So. Two views of time travel! Personally, I find the Temporal Anomalies writer to have an interesting view of the series, and it does clear up some of the confusion I had when I tried to think of the canon as a stable time loop.
The theories in this article won't affect my play; I just thought it was interesting and also the writer articulated his thoughts a whole lot better than I could.
...upon rereading this, I think my nerd cred just went up about 20 points. orz!!
edit HA HA oh my god someone tried to make sense of T1, T2, T3, and TSCC. If only they managed to work in T2:3D, but I think that is impossible.
"Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies Unravels 'The Terminator'".
IN SHORT FORM, the two movies do not create a "stable time loop" -- that is, that B causes A and it's all neat and pat and there is no real "beginning" to anything. This is what I have always assumed, which may be why I get a glazed expression thinking about the canon too long. The writer says that everything that happens is a result of different timelines (which we do not see). Characters mess with those timelines (which is their past), but by doing so create more, alternate timelines.
So basically, the Terminator canon is made up of like 10 alternate timelines, of which we only see perhaps two.
The following is a summary of how the writer broke down the alternate timelines.
Timeine A (original): Sarah Connor has a normal life, has a kid by a man whom she possibly marries. An unknown dude creates Skynet in the far future. Armageddon occurs. The Connor child becomes a natural leader in this crisis.
Timeline B: Skynet sends a Terminator to kill Sarah Connor. It fails -- or rather, it fails at preventing John's birth. His father may be a different person than in Timeline A. Sarah Connor is possibly killed.
Timeline C, "The Terminator": B!John dislikes that future, and wants to save his mother. So he sends back Kyle Reese. Kyle Reese unwittingly becomes C!John's new father. The leftover Terminator parts from the end of the film jump-start Skynet earlier than in Timeline A or B.
Timeline D: Skynet realizes that its primary antagonist is John Connor, so it sends back a Terminator to kill him. Presumably, it fails. The writer theorizes that Sarah Connor is killed, as the T-1000's secondary mission was to capture her to use her as bait.
Timeline E, "Terminator 2": D!John knows he needs help to save his mother, so he sends back a reprogrammed T-800 to help his younger self. Sarah Connor is saved. She goes on to destroy Cyberdyne Systems, which created Skynet from the Terminator parts in Timeline C. However, doing that only pushes back the date of Judgment Day; there is still an unknown company out there, Cyberdyne's competitor, which may create Skynet by natural advancement of technology.
Presumably, future-E!John knows this. By now the timelines have become muddled so that if there is no war in the future, he cannot send Kyle Reese back to become his father, so the war must happen. (Destroying this possibility creates something called an "infinity loop" I'M JUST THROWING IT OUT THERE, I really do not have much of an idea what it means.) So he programs the T-800 with false information, so that Sarah Connor believes she stops the war when she blows up Cyberdyne.
Unknown company (I think Terminator 3 makes it the military) thus creates technology that becomes Skynet, which becomes self-aware, which results in a war between machines and humans.
---
One person in TV Tropes believes that the Terminator franchise is a stable time loop. The Resistance is actively lying about the date of Judgment Day to maintain a timeline in which they win.
---
So. Two views of time travel! Personally, I find the Temporal Anomalies writer to have an interesting view of the series, and it does clear up some of the confusion I had when I tried to think of the canon as a stable time loop.
The theories in this article won't affect my play; I just thought it was interesting and also the writer articulated his thoughts a whole lot better than I could.
...upon rereading this, I think my nerd cred just went up about 20 points. orz!!
edit HA HA oh my god someone tried to make sense of T1, T2, T3, and TSCC. If only they managed to work in T2:3D, but I think that is impossible.