Timey-Wimey Ball: Difference between revisions

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Excepting [[The Slow Path|mundane travel from the past to the future at a rate of one second per second]],<ref>For all you physics buffs out there, yes, this does imply that [[Time Travel]] is unitless.</ref> no human has ever experienced [[Time Travel]] first hand. Indeed, we don't know if it's even possible.<ref>Albert Einstein's mathematics show it is achievable by [[Time Dilation]] through accelerating to high speeds, but only towards the future and without a way back. We also know that gravity slows down time, meaning that you if you are in space your one second per second would be negligibly faster than on earth. Possibly exempting astronauts who, having been whirling around the earth at high speeds, have travelled a few seconds or minutes into the future depending on how long they have been in space.</ref> So debating [[Our Time Travel Is Different|which time travel]] [[Temporal Mutability|theory is right]] is much like trying to find the best flavor of Kool-Aid. Fans [[Bellisario's Maxim|are aware and accepting of this]], just like no one minds when [[Our Monsters Are Different]], or two different series have [[Functional Magic|different rules for magic,]] so long as the series' [[Magic A Is Magic A|own internal rules are consistent.]]

** The whole of ''The Big Bang'' is built on this trope {{spoiler|-- The Doctor saving the day and escaping from the Pandorica is built on an ontological paradox -- he shows up already escaped to enlist Auton!Rory in effecting his escape.}} The Doctor even explains that this would normally cause drastic side effects for the universe, but luckily {{spoiler|the universe had already been destroyed.}}

** ''A Christmas Carol'' also features this heavily. {{spoiler|It starts with the Doctor showing a video Karzan made as a boy to the older him - and traveling back in time to when he made it, leaving Karzan watching a video of the Doctor interfering in his past as his own memories change to reflect that this had happened. It ends with the Doctor showing the [[Future Me Scares Me|younger Karzan the man he turns into]], leading to the older one having a change of heart partly brought on by realizing he's turned into his father, and partly by him being retroactively altered by the experience of being horrified at seeing his older self as a boy.}} ''Ow.'' It's implied this method is far from perfect, as {{spoiler|Karzan's own mind-reading controls no longer recognizes him, despite the fact that it should logically have been programmed for the Karzan that existed in the current timeline.}} I think it's that the Doctor {{spoiler|changed the boy as well as the man. Hypothetically, Boy Karzan went through all the stuff that Scrooge Karzan did, but had the additional factor of seeing Scrooge Karzan and never wanted to become like he was.}} Presto Change-O and immediate echoes into the future... {{spoiler|his brain waves change - creating a new Karzan who both experienced Abigail ''and'' Scrooge Karzan and ''also'' maybe even at one point of the new history we didn't see ''rejected his father'' (so no actual mind control for him was made .}} Who knows? It is a Timey-Wimey Ball after all

*** Simple enough: Their meetings are mostly random, and any given time the two meet up may be synchronized, but -overall- they're moving in opposite directions.

** To add to the weirdness that is time-travel in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', look at its opinion on the Blinoctich Limitation Effect. In some cases it seems to suggest that [[Never the Selves Shall Meet]], lest they cause reality to shatter. Or maybe that's only if there's another paradox nearby. Sometimes it causes memory loss if the two touch, like what happened to [[The Brigadier]]. Maybe the same object touching will just cause sparks. Or maybe nothing will happen at all except flirting. It's just whatever happens to work for the plot.

** And later in that same episode, The Boys From the Dwarf violate the same laws that allowed them to survive after they take [[John F. Kennedy]] back in time to assassinate his past self!

** In "Future Echoes", Rimmer tries to explain Timey Wimey to Lister:

'''Rimmer:''' Poppycock! [[Time Travel Tense Trouble|It will be happened; it shall be going to be happening; it will be was an event that could will have been taken place in the future.]] Simple as that. Your bucket's been kicked, baby. }}

* ''[[Smallville]]'' had a situation in the episode "Homecoming" that was similar to the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' "Time Crash" short mentioned above; Clark, briefly stuck seven years or so into the future courtesy of Brainiac 5, slips into the Daily Planet's elevator, where [[My Future Self and Me|his older self is waiting for him.]] Older Clark orders younger Clark to go to the Planet building's roof to prevent Lois' helicopter from crashing while he(the older Clark) prevents a nuclear reactor from melting down as Superman. When younger Clark asks his older self how he knew to wait for him, older Clark simply answers, "Time travel. Work it through." He knew because he had lived the same situation seven years ago.

** However, [[Magic A Is Magic A]] applies heavily and every form of time travel is internally consistent. The problem arises when there are at least ''four'' different forms of time travel, and possibly even more, all of which abide different rules

*** Heroes of Time have two options. Either A) They change destiny and cause a branch timeline, or B) [[You Already Changed the Past]]. They naturally have some intuition about what changes cause what. Time magic practiced by the Felt is more loose, and can be used for pretty much any form of [[Time Travel]]. And then there's the weird stuff, like the Furthest Ring distorting space and time, potentially causing someone to meet their past selves by traveling in a straight line and Skaian portals.

* Done [[So Bad It's Good|hilariously badly]] in the abandoned indy RPG ''[[Zybourne Clock]]'':

{{quote|[[Memetic Mutation|Imagine four balls on the edge of a cliff.]] Say a direct copy of the ball nearest the cliff is sent to the back of the line of balls and takes the place of the first ball. The formerly first ball becomes the second, the second becomes the third, and the fourth falls off the cliff. Time works the same way.}}