The story!! I''m talking about the story!!!!!

Let me try and do some timeline bios:

Younger self: sees parents get murdered, joins an anti-war faction who, after the war, dedicate themselves to freeing alien slaves. He meets Friend A(an alien) after the crusade, discovering A is one of the rescued prisoners. He discovers a legend which offers true power, which sends him on a journey outsideof the universe into an abstract world. The inhabitants offer him any power he wishes, and he wishes to go back in time to save his dead parents.

Now at this point, let''s assume that he was successful at preventing everything. Unfortunately, this negates the need to go back in time, so the universe splits in two. This other reality is not the "happily ever after" one, but one where the alien opposition wins the war instead of the humans. This is because the attack on the colony was an attempt by corrupt human officials to instigate conflict. Instead of the humans joining the fight(under the presumption that the aliens attacked them), the human race becomes divided, leading to a cold war of sorts-- and eventually actual war.

The older self(in the future alternate reality) and Friend A realize that they''ve only caused more trouble-- and in their own small histories, have still suffered. They view the effects of their meddling-with-reality in the form of being violently thrown from one reality to the other(in a timespan which matches how long their crusade took). The two of them are driven insane, realizing there might not be a "happily ever after" reality.

Friend A goes back in time AGAIN to kill Our Hero(any incarnation he finds first) in a blind attempt to restore the old history. Our Hero goes into hiding for a thousand years(hey, he''s got super powers!) and discovers, through his madness, he can awaken an evil power that somehow invaded his soul during his lifetime. With that in mind(and the fact that he can''t save his parents), he travels back in time(to the same point his younger self did) with the intention of leading the war and building an unholy empire. In this respect, the older self becomes the VILLIAN of the story.

Side Note: The "evil power" inside Our Hero is actually an ancient being, who was the first lifeform to evolve past a carbon base. His race hated and ostracized him, but due to the evil''s immense power, they didn''t thwart him until after he killed 12 BILLION people. They subdued him finally, and threw him into the nearest star. The star imploded eventually, ejecting this evil into the void of space until he JUST HAPPENED to crash into Our Hero at some point in time. The evil power became a parasite, waiting for the right time to consume its host and gain form again.

Blugh... My hands are cramping, and I have a design doc to get to. To be continued--

DUN DUN DUN!!!

B. Bradley: The number 2 mind

www.numbermind.com(coming soon)

The Soul Reaver 2 example is totally valid. Time loops are always fascinating, and can add a lot of interest to a story. However, they're tough to set up. It takes a lot of work to figure out how that time loop came to be. I always liked the idea off somebody starting out with the flawed objective of going back in time to fix a perceived wrong and buggering up the mission. But there are several scenarios.

Scenario 1: On/Off Loop: Hero goes back in time to save Damsel. Hero saves Damsel.
---*PROBLEM*: In future, Hero has no more reason to save Damsel. Hero doesn't go back in time, damsel doesn't get saved, Hero has a reason to go back and save Damsel. Time flickers back and forth like this until God has an epileptic fit and the world blows up.
---*SOLUTION*: Beats me. Hollywood usually just ignores this kind of thing. For reference, see the new "The Time Machine" movie. Actually, that movie makes this paradox a tenet of the story, until the last five minutes of the movie, at which time it is ignored.

Scenario 2: Proper Planning: Hero goes back in time to save Damsel. Hero saves Damsel. Hero and Damsel live happily until time when Hero went back in time. There are now two Heroes: Old Hero, who has already gone back in time, and Young Hero, who has no idea that he needs to go back in time. Old Hero tells Young Hero to go back in time. New Hero does. Loop is solidified.

Scenario 3: Switchback: Hero goes back in time to save Damsel. Hero Saves Damsel. Hero tells Damsel to tell Young Hero to go back in time. Hero returns to present. Damsel tells Young Hero to go back in time. Young Hero does. Old Hero shows up from the past. Hero and Damsel hug.

Scenario 4: Fluke: Hero is sucked back in time to a time at which he has a chance to save Damsel. Hero doesn't really remember Damsel being dead in his future. Hero rescues Damsel. hero returns to present to find that Damsel is (still) alive.

Scenario 5: Terminator: Villain goes back in time to murder Damsel. Hero goes back in time to save Damsel. Hero defeats villain; saves Damsel. Hero returns to future.
---*NOTE*: Villian is in situation Hero faced in Scenario 1. Both face risk of changing the past and thus buggering the future.

Scenario 6: Historic Duty: Hero goes back in time to save Damsel. Damsel explains that it is her destiny to die. Damsel dies. Hero returns to future, smiles sadly, and gets drunk.

Scene 7: Back to the Future: Hero goes back in time to excape Terrorists. Hero buggers up past. Hero fixes past with Rock 'n' Roll. Hero is Michael J. Fox.

Scenario 8: My Favorite: Hero goes back in time to save Damsel. Hero saves Damsel. Hero tells Damsel to tell Young Hero to go back in time. Hero returns to present. Due to Hero's behavior, Hero dies at age 11, before Damsel meets him, but Damsel tells Plucky Youth the story. Plucky Youth goes back in time. Plucky Youth saves Damsel. Plucky Youth tells Damsel to tell Young Hero to go back in time. Hero returns to present. Due to Plucky Youth's behavior, Plucky Youth is never born. Damsel, knowing Plucky Youth's story, goes back in time her damn self. Damsel saves Damsel. History corrects itself recursively such that Hero survives to adulthood. Damsel and Hero are reunited. Damsel and Hero hug.

Okay, that's enough for now. No doubt scores of other scenarios are possible, but I'm insufficiently motivated to investigate them here.

[edited by - Iron Chef Carnage on December 15, 2003 9:49:03 PM]

I like scenerio 6, lol

I think I got that one from a Quantum Leap episode where Sam Beckett gets to save Kennedy, but after he explains everything to him, and begs him not to go in the motorcade, JFK smiles and says, "Let''s go make some history." Quantum Leap is cool.

I now have an incredible headache...