How do you see Time Travel?

T

Thundor

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Original poster
So I've recently thought back, and I still hate time loops to this very day. Don't get me wrong though, I do acknowledge that when it can be done right, it can be done awesomely. Heck, some of my favorite things involve time travel done right, even though I can't recall them very good right now. But most of the time, time loops are dumb, stupid and can often at times just lead to confusion. That, to me, is not entertaining, it's distracting, annoying.

Okay, so I don't like time travel because of this. I hate it so much, I avoid it when I can. But my biggest problem is the Predestination Paradox. Oh, you know the one. The plot twist where it turns out that this was ALL MEANT TO HAPPEN. That everything was set in stone, fate cannot be changed, this is your DESTINY. All you did is just restart a giant loop, forever repeating, forever trapped. Why do I hate this? Because it's a lame excuse to cover up lazy writing. It sucks, it's stupid, it goes against everything I believe in, never being able to change ANYTHING is NOT what we, as people, are about!

So, if I hate it, how do I see time travel done right? I see it as opening an alternate timeline, by changing something in the past, you just threw yourself into an entirely new river. the original river exists, but you don't exist in that river anymore It's opening a new road, that's how I've seen time travel now. Although I may end up experimenting with different ways to view time travel in the future. Oh, and as for the future itself? I believe that since the future is undetermined, we -are- the future. The present can, technically, be the future, since we are making events happen, and thus, creating a 'past', like a river or a road... If, that makes any sense.
 
I am mad-o scienteest Hououin Kyouma!

KYA-HYAHYAHYAHYAHYA...

Really liked that show.

World lines are neat. Like the Bearenstein bears thing.
 
I know right?! The biggest perpetrator when it comes to time loops is the Terminator series. Like if it wasn't for Reese going back in time to save John's mom, John wouldn't even exist, but if he didn't, Reese wouldn't have gone back in time to save... damn her name escapes me. Anywho. I feel ya. There is a book series about time travel, it's called The Missing. It's for young adults/teens, but it's still worth a read. =3
 
I vote for time travel being timey, wimey...ball...stuff.

Its been mentioned above.
 
Time travel is a plot tool. Like any tool, it can be used well and it can be used poorly.
 
I disagree with the OP on this. I see time loops as showing a very strong sense of circularity in human experience, in that it reflects how nothing is new under the sun, and everything that ends up happening is already done. It's a powerful viewpoint, very evocative in terms of emotion (I'm gonna cite episodes of time travel in stories containing prophecies, such as Macbeth or Oedipus), while being, in terms of narrative, very clean, closing off a lot of open ends with a good deal of shock while rarely being heavy-handed in deliver. At the same time, even though the Predestination Paradox shows a lot of futility in human experience, it also affirms a value I think is more fundamental than us humans being capable of changing our past: that is, it shows how we humans, regardless of circumstance, are actually willing to do anything for our deepest passions, highlighting our ever-present drive in the face of certain tragedy.

That said, I generally see time travel to the past as being rather awkward, since stories containing such things usually set themselves up for ridiculous logical paradoxes, while ending up either with massive open ends or the creation of whole different universes that make the endings feel too disconnected from reality. Time travel to the future, however, is something I can very well appreciate, even if the future being traveled to is what we now consider as the past. Episodes containing such things rarely end up with time travel-related paradoxes, while providing many a clear perspective on what the authors actually want to say, while bringing, at least in the case of prophetic exhibitions of time travel, greater shocks to the mind when the climaxes or the key plot twists are revealed.

Note that for the above extrapolations on what I think of time travel, I'm talking about time travel in terms of storytelling, and that's only when I'm actually looking deep into the story (if the story is something I'm enjoying merely to quench a fancy, and by all its other aspects it can hold itself well, then, quite frankly, the issues of time travel I won't give a damn to). In terms of life in general, I see time travel as a mode of reflecting upon the circularity of human experience and the perseverant nature of humanity, as I noted in the first paragraph; in terms of reality, I agree with the scientific consensus that only time travel to the future exists is truly likely, in the sense of light-speed travel, relativity, and spacetime warping (though I myself have very little understanding in this regard).
 
It's just a jump to the left.




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The way I see it uses the whole infinite universes where there are infinite universes with infinite differences that can happen. Like going back to say last week,takes you to a universe where all events in the world are exactly the same as you own, but a week ago. When you cause your shenanigans and go sometime in the future, you end up in a universe, a week that had the same exact events, after a "you" arrived there from another parallel universe that mimics your own in every way, did the same exact shenanigans you did, and left at the same time.

Sorry if this is kinda confusing.
 
It's a rule of Time Travel that anything you do can cause a ripple effect, which means things are probably not the same when you return to your "normal" time, possibly including the things that influenced you to time travel in the first place.

It's also a rule that you have to keep things simple or you confuse your audience/readers.

Therefore, I'm okay with forgiving a lot of inconsistencies/ignored changes in time travel stories.
 
I think there's merit to all different flavors of time travel. While I can imagine how one might get frustrated by the sense of futility that comes along with closed time loops, others find it all the more compelling. That's the reason The Time Traveler's Wife is so moving. (Adored the book, have not seen the movie yet.) I do not think closed time loops are necessarily "bad writing" by any means.

But creating new timelines is tremendous fun too. I do love me some Back to the Future and the Star Trek reboot.
 
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