Flash ramble...

[ratcreature]

A little while ago when I talked about reading the recent Flash issues which give Wally a secret identity, I wondered how this worked. I mean beyond the "Hey, let's use The Spectre as a giant plot device that works in weird and quirky ways" level. Like, how did The Spectre do it, and what exactly was the nature of his intervention, etc. And then

Comments

[greenygal]

First: my head hurts again. :)

Second, I'm not sure that this works. Under this explanation the Spectre is in fact changing history, which he already said he couldn't do. And if he can do it, why isn't he fixing the problem directly and intermerging with a reality in which Hunter Zolomon never became Zoom? No muss, no fuss, just one quick fix. Now, that might not fix the larger problem, and it's possible that he couldn't deal with both problems at once without destabilizing reality, but if he said, I can hide your identity so this doesn't happen again, or I can make it so it didn't happen this time... Well, I think we all know what Wally and Linda would have chosen, right?

[ratcreature]

I don't think merging timelines *is* the same as changing history. See when I hear of "changing history" I think of someone, like the Flash, who has the ability to timetravel, going back within the same timeline, and messing with it, possibly creating all kinds of weird paradoxes and problems with events taking place as they should. That is changing the history within that reality. Merging two timelines doesn't present the same paradoxes, because the two timelines just settle into a new consistent one through a "natural" process, natural in that it obey natural law of the DCU, kind of like humans building particle accelerators or fusion bombs and similar gadgets, simulating processes that occur without humans only inside stars or way back at the beginning of the universe etc. Hal just has to choose the right timelines to get the right effects.

[ratcreature]

I forgot, about why he doesn't intermingle with a "Hunter never became Zoom" timeline, that is tricky to fanwank, especially if you assume that there's an infiitive number to choose from, but I guess it is possible that in all timelines Hal can perceive where that doesn't happen, something goes wrong later, or none of them is close to the main timeline in the "future" creating possible consistency problems with all the intra-timeline time travel going on that is necessary to maintain the main DCU timeline at various points.

Flash, Specter & other things

[ratgirlusa]

I missed the issue, darn it, but caught the repercussions. The hypertime explanation works for me, so far as I can tell (not being a physicist and all...)

As for Spectre, according to angels Gorgonel and Zauriel (JLA 28 or so), he is "the manifestation of God's eternal wrath" and "one of the prime guardians of creation." Being basically an elemental force, he still has to play by the rules. He doesn't change history, so much as blanket the earth with collective amnesia (and a few selective material alterations - ie, statuary and such). What happened before still happened. He has only changed the present and the future, which we all do anyways, on a different scale.

*sigh* Cosmic power and responsibility sucks...

Re: Flash, Specter & other things

[ratcreature]

Cosmic power and responsibility sucks...

Though I figure there has to be something in Flash's potential futures that prevents the Spectre from helping Flash more. I mean, even if he can't change "history" (and with all the timetravelling going on to keep history intact the number of possible futures probably have restrictions also), if he can manipulate both mind and matter why doesn't he heal Linda so that at least she and Flash could have children in the future even though they lost the unborn twins? Whether he causes countless manipulations in a single timeline, or causes the changes by manipulating hypertime like in my theory, in both scenarios it ought to be possible for him to heal Linda, even if he can't bring back the dead embryos. He doesn't do that. For a cosmic power that can change statues, records etc. and cause selective amnesia in people through whatever method, that couldn't be too hard. Yet he doesn't.