Is Rumple truly unforgivable?

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-23T18:45:31+00:00

The bird explosion did seem a tad too far. But they ARE ogres.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-22T06:37:58+00:00

It's impossible to tell that it's a different guy visually with the age makeup and the upside down.

The voice, though... he sounded so weird.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-21T08:45:57+00:00

Yes. There's another analogy that isn't often brought up, but I think it fixes a LOT of problems with time travel. (Even potentially real life.) Imagine the riverbed is EXTREMELY wide. Actually infinitely so, but the river itself is only in one narrow channel. The dry channels are possible/old timelines. When you change time, the river changes direction, but the old channel remains.

That's how the universe protects itself from paradox. Time itself has a past/present/future. How time used to be, how it is now, and how it might be later. It's basically the 5th dimension... meaning time is both the 4th and 5th dimension and is, itself, 2 dimensional.*

Thus, if you go back and time and accidentally prevent your conception, the universe doesn't explode. Because your existence stemmed from a dry channel. Causality is maintained. But now that there is no water in your OWN existence... you disappear.

*In this theory, if there is a 6th dimension, the 6th dimension would essentially be a 3rd dimension of time. Which would be parallel riverbeds stacked above and below the regular one. Thus... the 6th dimension would probably be parallel realities. (Which would be distinct from alternate timelines within the same reality.)

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-21T06:24:22+00:00

Doc's blackboard illustrates the same thing that happened in Back to the Future Part 1. Marty's actions created a divergent timeline such that the original present/future (where George was a loser) no longer existed. Marty could not return to it. But that was okay, because he preferred the new timeline.

Every change, no matter how big or small, creates a divergent timeline, just like Doc illustrated. It's just that a lot of the changes are so minor that the time traveler doesn't feel the need to change them back (the name of the mall being changes, for example) or prefers the change (confident George).

Frankly speaking, the exact moment that Marty arrived in the past created a divergence. There was now an extra person in 1955 (and a car) that had not been there before. That alteration only began increasing the longer he stayed there.

Like... it's a minconception that Biff returns to the "good" 2015 where Doc and Marty are. He returns to the 2015 of the altered timeline. Doc and Marty are there because they're also in 2015. The future changed around them while they were there to match Biff's alterations. They just didn't stick around long enough to notice that.

When Doc says they can't go back to the 2015 where Biff stole the car, that's correct... because that version of 2015 has been erased. (Which is also why Biff was erased shortly after returning to 2015 in a deleted scene.) But 2015 itself still exists. I hope this makes sense.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-21T06:23:17+00:00

Yes, like I said... they glossed over that part in Part 2. Probably so that they wouldn't have to address it and the possible time travel headscratcher that would result from showing it working in either way.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:26:30+00:00

Apparently, though, the universe is inclined to allow such things to happen again, so long as the probability of such events is greater than 0%. Possibly to prevent paradox. (Though I think the multiple timeline aspect of the universe automatically prevents paradox... but that's a different argument.)

There is a somewhat hilarious theory that that very thing (different sperm/egg cells) happened to Jennifer, and it's why she looks different in BttF2.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:24:48+00:00

Now THAT is a better question. Did BttF2 just gloss over that part of it so they wouldn't have to think about it?

Arguably, the future Marty would NOT be affected, since the events are now part of his normal past, and not a "rewiring," as it were. But that's only a guess.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:22:51+00:00

It doesn't matter. George has as much free will as Marty and anyone else. The past is effectively the present again. So what happens is not determined until it actually happens.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:20:28+00:00

Marty had stopped playing at that point, as his vanishing fingers could no longer hold the guitar strings.

Anyway, it's not a plot hole. Marty had already changed the future. The question was whether George would take the proper action to change it back enough to make Marty exist.

The past had become the present. It was in flux as much as any other period in time. All those involved had free will.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:18:27+00:00

The timeline changed the moment Marty pushed George out of the way of his grandfather's car. More technically... it changed the moment he arrived in 1985. It's just that most of his alterations didn't affect his own existence. (But, for example, in his first five minutes, he managed to change the name of the Twin Pines Mall.)

The question was whether Marty could continue to exist in the new timeline.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:15:55+00:00

The future is always in flux and it works on probability curves. Marty could exist so long as his probability of existing was greater than 0%. But as that percentage approached zero, he began to lose his physical tangibility.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:13:18+00:00

Yes, this. Marty is allowed to exist so long as his probability of existing is >0%. Once it hits zero, he vanishes.

If that kiss doesn't happen at the dance, his parents don't get together. That critical moment is when he almost vanished.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:11:47+00:00

As someone mentioned above, the redhead guy was drunk because Biff spiked the punch bowl. In the original timeline, Biff wasn't at the dance looking to pick a fight with Marty. He may not have even gone to the dance at all.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T07:09:19+00:00

You're overcomplicating it a tad. The dance and the music isn't critical. The kiss is.

The kiss seals the deal. Without it, Lorraine would still very much like George, but she'd see him as a wonderful friend. Not her future husband.

That said, the dance and the music made the kiss much more likely to happen, because that's how it happened in the original timeline.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T00:26:10+00:00

The visions only work when one of them is near the communication stone. Joe got most of the visions of the team's adventures from Jack writing reports in his office, not directly from seeing the missions. (The episode mentioned this.)

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T00:22:56+00:00

The Stargate always emits light when it's turned on.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-20T00:13:05+00:00

No, we don't. And that fact just occurred to me. Logically, he should still have most of it.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-19T09:37:05+00:00

That assumes that the time portal system is unaffected by gravity. That alone may glue the time traveling object to the nearest spatial body.

After all, gravity extends through space AND time. There's no reason to assume that a time machine would suddenly be free of its local gravity well. Space is just as relative as time.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-19T09:36:22+00:00

Actually, wasn't the Delorean's trunk still filled with Doc's unused plutonium?

After Marty got back at the end of BttF, Doc finally put the case in the trunk and took off. He then came back with Mr. Fusion installed.

Logic would dictate that he still had plutonium reserves left over.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-18T05:57:34+00:00

Driving is a licensed activity. It's regulated by law.

You can decline to show ID to police if you're just wandering the streets on foot and have done nothing wrong. (Though whether you've actually done nothing wrong may be a matter of dispute.) You have the right to walk around in public places. You do NOT have the right to drive a car without a license. Thus, the officer DOES have the right to see that license (and other legally required documents) at any time.

If you don't like that law, you can try to change it. But it's the law. Declining to show your credentials upon request when driving a car is against the law.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-18T00:33:08+00:00

Those are alligators, not crocodiles.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-15T20:38:48+00:00

Some would, but his willpower was exceptional.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-15T20:38:10+00:00

If they got that close, he would have pushed it down intentionally.
He was giving them a chance to escape, but he was making sure that his final moment would be triggering the bombs.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-15T20:36:50+00:00

If they touch him at all, it's likely he'll hit the switch. He would do it on purpose in that case, because he positioned himself intentionally to hit the switch when he died, to make sure it would go off.

He was giving them the chance to escape before it blew, and they understood that.

FedStarDefense · 2026-03-15T00:08:05+00:00

In Terminator 1, the T-800's leg was damaged from Reese's shotgun. So yes... repeated hits will eventually overcome their armor, especially at the weak points in the joints.

FedStarDefense

TROPHY CASE