Comparative Opinions: Episode 11 – Compounded Time Travel

Welcome to the Comparative Opinions podcast! This week hosts Holly and David tackled one of their favorite topics, time travel. In particular, the conversation revolves around stories where there are multiple time travelers or time travel events happening at one point in history – thus “compounded time travel.” Bunches of small spoilers, but for recent things, definitely spoilers for Terminator Genisys, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Flashpoint.

Comparative Opinions is a weekly half-hour-ish podcast hosted on ComparativeGeeks.com. Subscribe for new episodes every Sunday!

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Music is by Scott Gratton: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Gratton/Intros_and_Outros

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Time Travel and You – Throwback Thursday

This was our introductory Time Travel post over on Comparative Geeks. This weekend’s podcast is regarding Time Travel, so I thought this was a nice one to harken back to and still relevant in its explorations. Let us know what your favorite Time Travel elements are!

So some of my favorite stories are time travel stories. Partly because it is interesting to think what the future would be like, but also what it would be like to go into the past. Sometimes Time Travel is the main part of the story, other times it is a by product, and then other times it can be used as a Deus Ex Machina to solve all problems. In any way it is used it is still interesting how it is used and the rules that the creator sets up around said time travel.

As David and I were discussing this post we came up with three areas that we felt define the differences in time travel stories. One, how is time travel possible? Two, how does time travel affect the greater universe and timeline? Three, how does time travel affect the traveller?

Time Travel and Mr. Peabody and Sherman

This weekend David and I went and saw Mr. Peabody and Sherman, which is a heart warming tale of a dog and his boy. The movie was really cute and highlighted the relationship between Peabody and Sherman, but it would not be Peabody and Sherman without time travel. The whole idea of inventing a time machine (called the Way Back) to teach your son about history is fascinating. The time travel that they show in the movie is great in mine opinion and they went to more than one location, which is part of what made it so interesting.

There are a few interesting things about how they decided to look at time travel in this movie. One, is that the things they do in the past seems to not affect the timeline and even seems to be incorporated into how history occurred. Next, is that they only travel to the past and back to their own time. They seem to be only able to move through the past and not into the future. Finally, the one big rule of time travel is that you do not cross your own time stream, which leads to interesting consequences. (Spoilers for Mr. Peabody and Sherman after the jump)

Are We In The True Timeline? – Final Fantasy XIII-2

Last week I wrote a post recommending that you play, or complete, the Final Fantasy XIII games. Next week, Final Fantasy XIII-3: Lightning Returns comes out; Holly reviewed the Demo for that, which gave a lot of insight into the plot, and also the gameplay, of what is one of our most anticipated games of the year.

I’ve been finishing up side quests and Paradox Endings, getting ready for Lightning Returns!

That makes this week the right time, I feel, for a nice, spoilery, Time-Travel post about this game, right? Except, this game is two years old now… and the blog is one year old… meaning yeah, we’ve definitely already written that post. Holly actually did a really great explanation of the time travel in Final Fantasy XIII-2 last year. So many great elements – paradoxes, competing timelines, paradox endings, prophecies… good stuff. But she has that covered.

So instead, let’s take that time travel into a philosophical place. The statement from the game is: if you change the future, you change the past. First, I’ll look at what this means in the game or in general as a statement, and then, let’s carry it into the future. It also ties into another concept from the game: the idea of the “True Timeline,” which is effectively, the one that exists before time travel tampering. Or is it the one with the best outcome? Let’s consider these questions, and our own world!

Time Travel and You

So some of my favorite stories are time travel stories. Partly because it is interesting to think what the future would be like, but also what it would be like to go into the past. Sometimes Time Travel is the main part of the story, other times it is a by product, and then other times it can be used as a Deus Ex Machina to solve all problems. In any way it is used it is still interesting how it is used and the rules that the creator sets up around said time travel.

As David and I were discussing this post we came up with three areas that we felt define the differences in time travel stories. One, how is time travel possible? Two, how does time travel affect the greater universe and timeline? Three, how does time travel affect the traveller?