“My Mother–My Enemy!” Is this about me?!
Marv Wolfman improves his time travel story immensely by pointing out that Lord Chaos is from an alternate future timeline. He doesn’t explain it in any great detail which is probably for the best because he stumbled onto one of the main ways that time travel would work if it existed. We can assume that the Lord Chaos timeline is the main Titans Universe timeline. And when I say “main,” I really mean “only.” There aren’t automatically infinite universes just because we like to really, really, really fucking believe in free will. There’s just the one. But! Here’s the time travel part. If time travel exists in that one timeline, a person can go forward in time and remain on that timeline. It doesn’t change anything except that the person disappears and later reappears down the timeline in the future. But if the person travels to the past, they create a forking timeline. This new timeline is exactly the same in every way with the original timeline right up until the moment that the time traveller appeared in it. At that point, the line skews off to the side and develops its own branch. The original timeline is completely unchanged but now minus the time traveller who basically leapt off and erased himself from that reality. That’s the version of time travel happening here. I approve.
The other form of time travel that I approve of is the Lost version where everything that happened, happened. Time is one imprint. So if a person in 2016 goes back to hang out at a Bon Jovi concert in 1987, he’ll always have been at that Bon Jovi concert. There is no “revisting” 1987. It all just happens at once. Time doesn’t care that the person technically, if you’re forced to view things in a linear pattern, hasn’t been born yet. Time is not constrained by the same rules that prison our perception.
On the other hand, I once more strongly disapprove of the Titans. Once again, they aren’t saving the world, or innocents, or any single thing in danger except for themselves. The only reason this conflict exists is because Donna Troy exists. The Titans are merely fighting to save themselves from a threat that doesn’t exist if they don’t. That isn’t being a hero. That’s just trying to survive. Plus, just like always, the trouble is caused by family!
The other form of time travel that I approve of is the Lost version where everything that happened, happened. Time is one imprint. So if a person in 2016 goes back to hang out at a Bon Jovi concert in 1987, he’ll always have been at that Bon Jovi concert. There is no “revisting” 1987. It all just happens at once. Time doesn’t care that the person technically, if you’re forced to view things in a linear pattern, hasn’t been born yet. Time is not constrained by the same rules that prison our perception.
On the other hand, I once more strongly disapprove of the Titans. Once again, they aren’t saving the world, or innocents, or any single thing in danger except for themselves. The only reason this conflict exists is because Donna Troy exists. The Titans are merely fighting to save themselves from a threat that doesn’t exist if they don’t. That isn’t being a hero. That’s just trying to survive. Plus, just like always, the trouble is caused by family!
No comments:
Post a Comment