#alternatively: bootstrap paradox

[damiel-of-real]

im replaying pokemon legends arceus and im thinking. do you think they preserved laventon's pokedex?? like im imagining present day archaeologists flipping through the pages and suddenly seeing that porygon was documented in a journal in the 19th century. and judging by the professor's writing fucking nobody has any clue how it got there

[adobe-outdesign]

GameFreak writing SV's plot: so the entire game is a big bootstrap paradox involving alternate timelines that likely contains other larger bootstrap paradoxes, making it a "turtles all the way down" infinite regress situation wherein every question answered just implies the existence of another timeline or bootstrap paradox

GameFreak writing SwSh's plot: haha Rose goes brrrrrrrr

[propfortytwo]

its so funny to me how de made all these alternate history legally distinct names for everything in 1999 except xipe totec is still xipe totec. there was some massive point of (at the very least linguistic) divergence in the warframe timeline with our own, except for the aztecs, theyre a universal constant.

jokes aside its interesting actually whats changed and what hasnt, like it seems like its specifically the anglophonic world thats diverged the most, since plenty of myths from other cultures have apparently endured long enough to have orokin terminology named after them. and of course to some extent this is, from a doylist perspective, a result of orientalism and viewing non-european cultures as inherently exotic. which is frustrating but not surprising from a western dev team.

having said that, im going to keep talking about the in-universe perspective because its fun and toys. anyway im assuming that the sol-lua mythology is the "principle of dualism" that ballas says came before "the vain faith"- which i'm also assuming is the whole orokin thing. given that other mythologies still existed, as evidenced by xipe totec, and the context clues of it being present in britannia (enough for eleanor to complain about it sneaking into childrens stories) and höllvania (theorized to be near where cetus ends up being by some), my assumption would be that in this timeline christianity did not emerge but this new mythology is still occupying a similar role in history, which is kind of low hanging fruit to notice, but still. its particularly interesting that ballas ascribes this faith to "our people"- either the orokin or the culture that proceeded them, despite the chat logs establishing that it was not the sole mythology of this timeline, which to me seems to imply a very chauvinistic origin to the orokin, presumably the socioeconomic bloc that the icr answers to.

the orokin, if im remembering right, had access to kuva prior to albrecht's Incident (unless im misinterpreting his statement of "i will not take the kuva"- it could be that it was invented after the fact and he's recording the logs much later, but its ambiguous, and i feel like the writers would have made a bigger deal out of it being a new invention from his perspective), and a tablet in duviri explicitly refers to kuva as being void-empowered. at this point, i wouldnt be surprised if kuva is a bootstrap paradox, being introduced into the timeline from the future and allowing the orokin to emerge from the ruling classes of 1999- after all, between the technocyte coda, scaldra's attempts to use the techrot for political upheaval, and the digital extremes infestation gag in the arg, its clear that the bourgeoise of this time have no qualms about trying to use dangerous eldritch forces for their own gain. they absolutely would establish the orokin empire, given the chance. this wouldnt be a huge far reaching lore reveal if it was true, of course, if anything it would be painfully mundane and anticlimactic- but unsurprising. scaldra especially, with its religious undertones, would make sense as an origin.

that just leaves this sol-lua culture as the only unexplained variable. is it the divergence point of the warframe timeline? when did it come about? we know its ancient even in 1999, since komi apparently comes from it, but just how ancient is the question. modern german, french, and jamaican patois exist in 1999, which seems to imply that certain aspects of history havent changed- its just very unclear how much has been influenced and its driving me nuts. i need drifter to go find a world history book and take notes for me to read.

[changeling-rin]

To be honest, I don't see the issue with just treating AoC the way the game presents itself, as an alternate timeline caused by Terrako and the malice's time travel. It's not like time travel induced alternate timelines is a new concept for Zelda.

I understand your point, absolutely. The part I have a problem with is when Nintendo said that AoC was supposed to be a canon prequel to BotW.

And this works, up to a point. But then it falls apart so impressively that no amount of tape could stick it back together again - you have the BotW descendants, who remember losing the Champions, coming back and preventing the Champions' deaths, which thereby immediately removes the reason for them to have come back, which introduces a paradox of the mind-bending bootstrap variety, and then it just keeps going from there.

If we want BotW to proceed the way we played it, then AoC cannot exist as it does. And if we want AoC to be completely canon, then BotW cannot be its direct canonical sequel. Something has to give, here.

I accept AoC wholeheartedly, in every respect except being a canonical prequel to BotW. Because... it's not. Basically, moral of the story, if AoI does the same thing then I shall slot it in next to AoC as 'Fun game, but not a canon prequel.'

[star-cosmos]

Mainly curious because I feel like there's evidence proving both could be possible.

[jadeteal]

PARADOX BEASTS THEORY THAT I NEED TO SHARE BECAUSE IT BASICALLY SOLVES EVERYTHING

Before I begin I need to say that Paradox Pokemon are from the ancient past and distant future. I don't like that the far removed ancestors and descendants of modern Pokemon look exactly like the ones today, but that's just the lore. AI Sada and Turo say it, the actual Sada and Turo wrote it in their journals, it's in all of the marketing, and it's literally just what using a "time machine" means. The games even set up a bootstrap paradox of the legendary's name, which would be dumb if it wasn't actual time travel, and we even see Terapagos use its time travel powers in the anime in the same place which isn't even up to interpretation, it's absolutely Rystal time traveling. One single line of dialogue says they come from alternate timelines, but at that point that line of dialogue is contradictory, not an explanation. And in the same event the professor later says that Paradox Pokemon being true ancestors and descendants is still a theory they have. Now that that's established. Ever since the games released people have called attention to Roaring Moon. Not only does it look like Mega Salamence, the resemblance is directly called out in Occulture and the Pokedex. This seems to parallel a Pokedex entry about Mega Aerodactyl, which says that it's the true form of Aerodactyl meaning the one revived from a fossil is inaccurate. From this, we can derive that the lore of Mega Evolution involves Pokemon awakening ancient, dormant genes and changing their appearance to be more like their ancestor species. The key to activating these genes was told to us all the way back in X and Y, a sudden burst of life energy. This is the same life energy emitted by Xerneas and absorbed by Yveltal, and that can also be turned into Infinity Energy in order to be used as a power source like in the Ultimate Weapon and New Mauville.

This is where Walking Wake, Raging Bolt, and Gouging Fire come in. Their existence has been perplexing obviously because of how Suicune, Raikou, and Entei only came into existence 150 years prior to Johto, which is even after the Scarlet book was published (200 years prior to Paldea) so how could these creatures exist then, or even in the ancient past. One conclusion that could be drawn is they simply evolved into the unknown Pokemon that died when the Brass Tower burned down, but that invited the question of "Why did Ho-oh revive them to look like their ancient ancestors?" Really, this whole issue can be summarized with the question of "Why do these Ancient Pokemon look like the Legendary Beasts?"

And that's where these two aspects of Pokemon lore come together. Ho-oh gave the deceased Pokemon live, reviving them into the Legendary Beasts. No one ever really thought to question why the act of reviving these Pokemon altered their appearance, but Mega Evolution may tell us why. Ho-oh gave them a sudden burst of Life Energy, and this awakened within them their ancient genes that caused them to resemble their ancient ancestors. In a way, this makes the Legendary Beasts almost like Mega Evolutions. The burst of life energy is what caused their appearance change. This even further explains why these Pokemon are a paradox, how can the ancestors of the Legendary Beasts be in the present day if they need to evolve into different Pokemon that then perish and are revived?

So the Paradox Beasts aren't anomalies that prove Paradox Pokemon need to be from alternate timelines, they really expand the lore of not only the Legendary Beasts, but of Ho-oh and Life Energy as well.

[uneducated-author]

First of all, I think everyone who predicted the 'Lu Guang alternate timeline' theory deserves a chocolate ice cream, and amazing job to the studio for embedding the story well enough that we could figure it out!

Second of all, did you all notice the difference in outfits? In the current timeline, both Lu Guang and Chang Xiaoshi are wearing costumes from the Romeo and Juliet play. However in the past timeline Lu Guang travelled away from, they were wearing their typical outfits, with Cheng Xiaoshi in the blue jacket and Lu Guang in the white overshirt.

The implication is kind of that the whole hostage situation didn't happen. Which actually, makes a lot of sense. I don't know if any of of you have heard of the bootstrap paradox, but it's a theory that when you travel in time to cause an event that correlates to your own timeline, the event is then 'uncaused'. Essentially it raises the question, Cheng Xiaoshi takes control of Lu Guang, and runs to the location he was abducted, because he was rescued by Lu Guang. And he only did this because he already had the memory of Lu Guang saving him. But who saved Cheng Xiaoshi first?

(Google Doctor Who Bootstrap Paradox, it explains it incredibly well)

So if the hostage situation didn't happen, maybe Cheng Xiaoshi died earlier in the timeline?

Also, Lu Guang was able to jump back in time, which isn't his ability. Back to the theory of parallel lines, what if in the original timeline, Cheng Xiaoshi passed Lu Guang his own ability, like how in the current one, Xixi (presumeably) passes her own to Qiao Ling. There are commonalities in the disparate timelines.

Also, the flashback with Chen Bin breaking free and catching himself has horrific implications. Because 'it can change with the influence of others' might have been Lu Guanv travelling back in time to save his friend, but Chen Bin didn't survive, his death was delayed. Time is more inevitable that one could think, and Cheng Xiaoshi has the mark of death on his life now.

[bubblez-bubble]

on your post about the time loop, there actually might not be a "first loop." it's probably a bootstrap paradox. there's a doctor who scene that explains it really well, look it up!

That is true and is absolutely a possibility. Originally, it was just a "what if..." kinda thing, but with this in mind maybe it really just simply is. However I do like to explore the other possibilities that can be brought with unusual circumstances like the time loop.

I love the different ideas that come from shows like this and Dr. Who with the original concepts and the several open doors for alternate realities and time lines and such.

So even if you're right about that, there could also still be a universe in which the same stands true for the post. That's the wonderful thing about fantasy.

I believe in Dr. Who it's also said there's an infinite number of universes with infinite possibilities or something along those lines (I don't really watch it all the time, but my boyfriend does and I get glimpses into the show if we happen to be watching it together. I just remember hearing something similar to that affect).

So while in the Canon universe, that may be the case (the bootstrap paradox), but there could also be another one in which it's not and it started somewhere else. There could also be another where it never happened at all. I've seen several ones where lucy never joined Fairy Tail at all.

Everyone has a different perspective and I love seeing yours, so thank you for your bringing this to my attention.

[dhr-ao3]

Memories of the Future

Memories of the Future https://ift.tt/AOPoTQJ by jazzybird Harry approaches Hermione with a serious message: “Someone is chasing me down through time, and we need to catch them before they change the past and the future.” The culprit, not able to find the Elder Wand in their universe, seeks it out in another —jumpstarting a journey for Hermione to not only travel through the decades but also through alternate universes as she’s tasked with figuring out just why exactly they are after Harry and the Elder Wand. To add to the complication, Future Draco travels back in time to tell Hermione to bring him along. Words: 13840, Chapters: 2/55, Language: English Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/M Characters: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Astoria Greengrass, Severus Snape, Original Characters, Abraxas Malfoy, Cantankerus Nott, Tom Riddle Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Astoria Greengrass/Theodore Nott Additional Tags: Enemies to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Draco Malfoy Needs a Hug, Time Travel, Time Turners (Harry Potter), POV Draco Malfoy, POV Hermione Granger, Theo is a Little Shit, Pining Draco Malfoy, Blood Magic, Blood Kink, There Was Only One Bed, HEA, Choking, Explicit Sexual Content, Explicit Language, The Library of Alexandria, Bloodthirsty cult, Traveling through alternate universes, Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, But only for a chapter, 1940s era Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy in the Muggle World, we'll have to use our brains unfortunately, sorry if this fic gets confusing, but that's time travel for ya, Time Loop, bootstrap paradox, Marriage of Convenience, Possessive Hermione Granger, Rough Sex, Lust Potion/Spell, Potions as Substance Abuse (Harry Potter), Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Plot Twists, Head Boy Tom Riddle, Spanking, Hurt/Comfort, Post-War, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Harm, Drug Addiction, Suicidal Thoughts, Blood Curses | Blood Malediction (Harry Potter), Drinking Games, draco and hermione in 1940s fashion, draco in suspenders ooh la la, Time Travel Fix-It, Draco types the cutest google searches, Hogwarts Library Restricted Section, Horcruxes via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/pskMNrD February 08, 2025 at 05:26AM

[kingcrimsonsalt]

My dearest followers, all 32 (how) of you, I've gathered you here to make a special announcement. Most of you, I assume, are with me because of my respects paid to a legendary mangaka. Or alternatively a post relating to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. As some of you may have noticed though, I often do not talk about things made by good authors, especially today. For today is 4/13, and gentlemen, I LOVE Homestuck. I love the beta kids, I love programmer humor, I love Sburb, I love poking fun at game mechanics, I love stupid bullshit teenage drama (shut up alpha kids I'm not talking about you), I love self-fulfilling prophecies and bootstrap paradoxes, I love the way seeing an [S] next to an arrow would surprise you, I love clicking on a pesterlog and seeing the scroll bar disintegrate, I fucking love plot beats changing the UI of the website itself I fucking love LUDOOOOO, I love Toby Foxe's music, I love Michael Bowman's music, I love George Buzinkai's music, I love Mark Hadley's music, I love that I could just keep listing off music credits holy shit the talent was crazy, I even love Andrew Hussie's art and writing for like 70% of Homestuck, maybe even 77%. Homestuck may not be PEAK FICTION like Dragon Ball, or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, or Kamen Rider Ryuki, or Godzilla Minus-One, or Limbus Company Canto VI The Heartbreaking, or Halo 2, etc. But I will defend that it is unironically good and I still love it, maybe even the community as well. Happy 4/13.

[lchi123]

A solution to the grandfather paradox (except not really because quantum mechanics)

okay so I think I’ve solved the grandfather paradox. Feel free to strike me down in my hubris if you come up with a counter.

some baseline assumptions first:

One fixed timeline, meaning if time travel has occurred, it’s always had occurred, where you notice the effects of time traveling before you time travel backwards to cause those effects. And no multiverses or alternate timelines, just the one.

time travel works by making something from the future, appear in the past.

combining these two assumptions, this is what time travel looks like in this universe.

There is an object on the table, let’s say it’s a potato. Let’s call it the present potato

suddenly, an identical potato (the same potato) from the future appears on the table two inches to the right of present potato

You then send the present potato back in time to the EXACT same location and time where and when the future potato appeared, causing the present potato to become the past’s future potato.

Note that the only way for the future potato to appear in the past is if you send the present version of the SAME potato to the same place and time the future potato initially appeared. Essentially the appearance of the future potato indicates a “slot” in the past that the present potato must travel to and fill. And yes this is a bootstrap paradox.

okay so now we all understand how time travel works. Now let’s say you want to kill your grandfather before your father was conceived. Obviously the grandfather paradox exists by the rules we’ve laid out. You can’t have appeared on the past when it happened because if your parents are never born you are never born so there’s no present version of you to go back. Or rather using the same “slot” logic from my potato example, your murderous future self never appeared in the past, so there’s no “slot” for you to fill when you go back in time. Or if you did appear and create that “slot”, there would be no future you to fill in that slot.

In fact by our rules it appears it is entirely impossible to change the timeline; the grandfather paradox prevents any change to a “fixed timeline” universe. If you wanted to go back and prevent the apocalypse, well you preventing the apocalypse didn’t exist in the timeline that resulted in the apocalypse, so there’s no place in the past for you to appear in. Or if you do prevent the apocalypse then there’s no version of you from the apocalypse to come back and fill that responsibility.

heck let’s even simplify this, let’s assume all you had to do was send a potato — no, simpler — a uniform perfect cube of aluminum to a specific spot and specific time to prevent the apocalypse. Well since the apocalypse-preventing cube never showed up in the original timeline (since the apocalypse has happened) then there’s no “slot” for the cube to appear. Or if it did work — if the cube did appear — there’s no cube coming from the future to fulfill it. It seems that no matter what you do, if an object didn’t first appear in the past, you can’t send it back in time. Or if an object appears, the other version of the same object in the future must be sent back

but here’s how we defeat it. Realize that the only reason we can’t change the timeline is that in a hypothetical changed apocalypse-less timeline, the cube that changed the timeline never got sent back, never fulfilling its slot. But what if in the changed timeline, someone also sent back the EXACT same cube, to the EXACT same place and time it was supposed to appear in? Heck realize that elemental particles have no memory, so the cube that the changed timeline sends back doesn’t even have to be the same cube, it can just be an IDENTICAL one.

and that’s how you defeat the grandfather paradox. By making sure whatever new future you try to create also sends back the exact thing that caused the original change. And this also handily explains how to jumpstart a bootstrap paradox. You probably won’t be able to personally shoot your grandfather, but if you send back a device to do it, and note on the device for someone at some point in that alternate future to build a separate but identical device and also send it back to the same place and time the original device first appeared, then that identical device would effectively become the original device.

except there’s a problem

The new timeline would have to send back a perfectly identical version of whatever caused the change, and they’d have to send it to the precise location and time. And in quantum mechanics, you can’t know or control the precise location of anything. So that’s it. You can only defeat the grandfather paradox if you can defeat quantum mechanics.

anyways idk if this actually an original thought or if somebody else has already come up with this, and either way there’s probably some hole in this theory that breaks everything, so feel free to yell at me if that’s the case

[thatone-churro]

abt ur crystal pool question; you as the player have created a bootstrap paradox ! the player char is directly responsible for yhe professors inevitable spiral into obsession and death bc they gave them brairs book ( thus completing the loop mentioned in the journal ) , but brairsbook can only exist bc they died in the first place ! :]

mandatory readmore because people will complain about spoilers but then never blacklist the spoiler tag

okay yeah i’ve gotten several explanations for this now (and no hate to any of y’all! i know i can ask a question and get a serious answer now lol) but i do very much understand what the cutscene was saying. i get that we dragged the professor through space-time. i get that we set the entire story into motion via the paradox we created. i get that it highlighted exactly how and why terapagos and the crystals were the key. i get that it explained that the paradox pokemon weren’t just pulled from across the timeline, but multiple, alternate timelines. and i enjoyed it! i thought it was brilliant! a great little secret ending that answered a lot of our questions!

but i meant that post as in like. an emotional reaction. as in like “what the fuck how could you do that to me. i’m screaming and crying. what the fuck was that for” y’know? it had me freaking the fuck out (affectionately). like woah. suddenly my skrunkly little turtle has brought the man (or woman i guess; i played violet lol) that haunts the narrative he was doomed by but for the first actual time in the entire game he’s actually alive. and still doing his work. and THEN to be hit with the new title screen right after? “oh SHIT this is lore relevant and it’s HURTING ME while it’s at it” type shit, yeah?

[markerofthemidnight]

Time Travel Paradoxes Are Objectively Cool (aka An Essay Where A Lame Bitch Gives You Ideas For Resolving Time Travel Paradoxes In Your Writing)

Hey guys, it’s me, ranting again. This time I wanted to try talking about time travel. Or, more specifically, time travel paradoxes.

I’ll go in-depth about what the paradox is, how it’s caused, where things get complicated, and potential “solutions” to it, all for the sake of your reading entertainment… or mainly just to give you a really hyperspecific form of writing advice.

I’ll talk about both ones I came up with myself and old-timey ones we’re all familiar with. Speaking of which:

The Grandfather Paradox

This one’s simple. Like, probably the simplest one on the list.

If you go back in time to kill your grandfather before he has any children (for whatever reason), you cease to exist as well, which means your grandfather exists since you are no longer around to kill him, which means that you exist since he’s around to eventually bring rise to you, which means that he doesn’t since you killed him, and so on and so forth.

This is, like I said, a simple problem with multiple simple solutions. For example:

Killing your grandfather is downright impossible up until he conceives one of your parents: wether because of horrible, reverse-Final Destination-style luck getting in the way or whatnot (the thread of time has to have self-preservation instincts, after all)

The most common solution: when you kill your grandfather, you create an alternate reality where you were never born, but since you’re from Reality A and not Reality B, both you and your grandfather are fine

My favourite solution: you succeed in killing your grandfather, but then your grandmother goes on to get with another man, who is now your new grandfather

The Bootstrap Paradox

Just barely lagging behind The Grandfather Paradox as the simplest one on this list.

The Bootstrap Paradox is what happens when an event causes itself. Let’s say you go back in time and give your grandmother (dear god why do these always have to do with grandparents) an item that she will later give to you in the present.

This is obviously a problem because it raises questions on how the item originally got there. (This isn’t limited to just items, of course, but let’s use that as an example-) Not only that, but also that, if the cycle started, how will it ever be broken? Can it be broken?

The reason why this is ranked as not being as simple as the Grandfather Paradox, if you ask me, is the lack of immediately obvious solutions. Granted, it’s not really something that needs to be solved: it’s just confusing.

Regardless, the item had to get there somehow. Someone, whether third party or not, gave it to one of you at some point. But if your grandmother truly was the original recipient, and you gave her an item that someone else was supposed to give to you, is there now a copy of it somewhere around there? Does she have both, and the reason why she gave it to you is because she already has a spare?

Oh, and speaking of copies:

The Time Travel Clone Paradox

You all knew this was coming, didn’t you?

This one doesn’t really need an explanation. If you travel back in time and meet your past self, what happens?

Well… probably the simplest solution I can come up with is just “nothing”.

There’s no grand cosmic plan in this universe. No one person has to always be in the same place at the same time: if that was the case, then why is time travel even possible?

There’s no reason for them to not be able to both exist at the same time. So why can’t they? Well… that’s a deceptively simple solution, so let’s just say that the, like… Gods of Time or whatever can’t allow that. Here’s a few other, more complex solutions:

The Futurama solution, where the time traveler is doomed to die if they don’t get out of there quick enough

Time travelers, for whatever reason, can only travel to points in time where they aren’t alive, preventing this problem altogether

When people make eye contact with their past selves, they’re instantly sent back to the present: there’s a timeline out there missing a person, after all

And when you think about it… this trope doesn’t only apply to people, does it? What if instead of seeing your future self… you saw your fate?

The Prophecy Problem

Now, THIS is what I made this entire essay for.

I know what you’re thinking. Prophecies of your own future can’t count as time travel paradoxes: most of the time they don’t even involve time travel!

And to that I say… do they? It’s a character making decisions based off of information that, at that point in their lives, they shouldn’t have. That’s time travel in a sense, don’t you think?

And sure, this is pretty boring when applied to the old “self-fulfilling prophecy” trope. But when it isn’t… well, here’s a situation I thought up.

A man is approached by an… entity of chaos, let’s say, who tells him that he will die later today. It tells him one small decision he makes later today that will inevitably result in his death… and nothing else. Not when he dies, not how he dies, it just tells him one thing he can do to potentially prevent it and then leaves.

Assuming that he, for some reason, knows that this isn’t a trick and believes it instantly, what does he do? The entity only told him one thing that could prevent it potentially, but he still doesn’t know how or when it happens, just that it does.

A man often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it. Even if he tries to avoid his fate, he might still meet it nonetheless. But if the entity knew that- which it likely did- why did it even bother telling him about his future?

Here’s how I would take this: It’s not like Futurama and its doomed temporal clones where any attempts for you to make a new timeline instantly go to waste. The new timeline has the potential to be both better and worse than the original: but regardless, it’s never going to be easy for you.

After all, you are making decisions based off of information you shouldn’t have. That alone leaves a major hole in the space-time continuum.

That’s All, Folks

Honestly, I didn’t put much thought into this essay before making it. There’s not a lot more I have to say… except for two last things:

No, I’m not including the Free Will Paradox. Its entire point is that everything you do was always destined to happen and that nothing you do matters: it doesn’t have a solution, it’s just incredibly confusing.

I considered including time loops as well, but really it depends on how it’s taken. If it’s a Majora’s Mask loop, it’s inevitable that it’ll be solved if you try hard enough. If it’s a Groundhog Day loop, it’s up to you to figure out the not immediately obvious solution, assuming it even has one.

[denimbex1986]

'When the news broke that Russell T. Davies would be returning to "Doctor Who" for the first time in more than a decade, there was a lot to be excited for and a lot be worried about. Davies had a great original run, arguably the best of the three modern showrunners, but his plot resolutions often left a bit to be desired. He had a tendency to throw all logic and continuity out the window for the sake of a happy ending, like in the "Doctor Who" season 4 finale where the Doctor managed to withhold his regeneration by basically transferring his regenerative energy into a severed hand of his, creating a clone of himself.

This all served the purpose of giving former companion Rose a happy ending. She got to live with the clone Doctor in her own alternate universe, whereas our Doctor got to continue going on his usual adventures. Many fans have argued that this ending is nowhere near as happy as it seems; this Doctor might act like he's happy to hang out with Rose for the rest of his life, but fans speculated he'd go insane after just a few years earthbound. Nevertheless, the episode itself tells us this is a happy ending, so it's easy to just imagine it is. 

With the last of the three 60th Anniversary Specials, "The Giggle," history has repeated itself with yet another nonsense twist involving a David Tennant-Doctor's regeneration. This time, the Fourteenth Doctor doesn't stick around by cloning himself; he sticks around through a process called "bi-generation." Fourteen gets to stay in the climax of the episode while Fifteen (played by Ncuti Gatwa) simultaneously gets his first official introduction. The two Doctors work together to save the day, they talk for a bit, and then they go their separate ways.

Doesn't really make much sense, does it?

The episode establishes that, even though Fifteen and Fourteen didn't do any time traveling in their scene together, Fifteen is still in Fourteen's future. The Fourteenth Doctor will spend the rest of his life living a blissful, mostly-domestic existence with Donna's family, and when he's ready to go (and has finished healing from all the trauma he's faced for 1,000+ years), he'll regenerate into Fifteen, who we've just met. 

How does this work, exactly? Considering we saw Fifteen be pulled out of Fourteen's regenerating body, how will Fourteen regenerate into him for real when the time comes? Or has the regeneration already happened, and Fourteen will simply die a normal death when his time comes? "The Giggle" itself seems remarkably uninterested in clarifying any of this, which only goes to show: the Russell T. Davies era is back, guys. It's so back.

Like the conclusion to Ten's sorta-regeneration in "Journey's End," the bi-generation plot point in "The Giggle" is one that clearly prioritizes fan service over consistent worldbuilding. It's a deus ex machina so bold and aggressive you have to admire it. People gave former showrunner Steven Moffat plenty of flak for his questionable endings over the years, like his decision to reveal that The Doctor never actually blew up Gallifrey after all in the 50th Anniversary Special, but he rarely pulled out a solution as flimsy as this. Even his many bootstrap paradoxes, which Moffat started to treat as a narrative get-out-of-jail-free card, at least kept a logical consistency to them that bi-generation simply doesn't have. 

Why it kinda works anyway

The ending to "The Giggle" is a clear-cut example of the show trying to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to have Fourteen regenerate into Fifteen, as we all know it has to do, but it still wants to keep Fourteen around anyway. The result is a solution that feels like cheating, which is perhaps appropriate for an episode whose villain is all about playing games by the rules. 

Yu have to admit it's delightful to see Gatwa and Tennant act alongside each other, and to get another rare glimpse of the Doctor talking to his former self. It's also undeniably heartwarming to see Fourteen — and Ten, by extension — finally get a happy ending after his somber departure in "The End of Time." The modern run of "Doctor Who" has piled an absurd amount of trauma onto this poor Time Lord, and it's struggled under the strain of keeping him fun and exciting even as he's constantly dealing with the heaviest grief imaginable. 

It also helps that Davies has done a good job in the first two specials of establishing that the Doctor needs a break. He needs at least a few decades of relative peace and quiet, rather than constantly flying from place to place, throwing himself into one new chaotic situation after another. On an emotional level, viewers have well understood that Fourteen's ending is exactly what the Doctor needs; it's easy to get behind this conclusion, even if the road to it was nonsensical.

What this means for the show

There are a lot of immediate implications for "Doctor Who" that come to mind after "The Giggle." The first is that Gatwa's Doctor might be the happiest Doctor we've gotten in a while. Modern "Doctor Who" started off with a version of the Doctor who was fresh off the Time War, still wracked with guilt over his apparent decision to kill his whole home planet. Despite all the retcons that came after, the Doctor throughout the past eighteen years has been much lonelier and edgier than the Doctor of the classic series. But from what we've seen of him so far, Fifteen might be the first Doctor in a while without so much darkness buried just beneath the surface.

The other result of "The Giggle" is that now it'll be remarkably easy for David Tennant to return at any moment. Whereas other multi-Doctor stories had to deal with a lot of timey-wimey loopholes to pull off their plots, all Fifteen has to do is return to modern-day London and the show will have a perfect excuse to bring Tennant back for a bit. It's a move that not only signals that Davies is returning to his original run's hallmarks — he'd routinely bring back past companions far more than Moffat or Chibnall would — but which establishes Tennant as the most popular Doctor of the modern era. He may not have had the seven-season run that Tom Baker enjoyed in the '70s, but he's already been brought back to the show twice since his departure, and he'll almost certainly return again. The resolution to "The Giggle" might be a total logical disaster, but what it promises for the show going forward is simply too fun to pass up...'

[itsjudemydude]

OH I FORGOT, ONE MORE THING

spoilers for the post-game of the explorers games lmao

so the final final boss of the game is darkrai, who's just your classic "wants to rule the world" villain. turns out he's been low key pulling the strings behind the curtain for quite some time, even so far as being the one who got you turned into a pokemon with amnesia in the VERY FIRST SCENE OF THE GAME. he disguised himself as his counterpart, cresselia, to trick you. he tricked the god of space, palkia, to try to eliminate you. but in the end, you go kick his ass and both palkia and cresselia show up once he's defeated.

and what do they do? they say "hey player, remember how darkrai shoved you off into the spacetime continuum to be left for dead? we're gonna do that to him. taste of his own medicine." so they do, and he just fucking disappears somewhere into time, presumably forgetting who he is, and likely not even being a darkrai anymore. there's actually a theory that he becomes a HUMAN... and is sent to the FUTURE..... and as punishment, its the DARK future where time was frozen

thats right, its possible that darkrai actually BECOMES THE PLAYER CHARACTER, meaning that the entire fucking game, start to finish, is a bootstrap paradox wherein the player character faces off against THEMSELF. so thats pardoxes, alternate timelines... WHAT DOESNT THIS GAME HAVE

I absolutely love that the Pokémon universe is literally tearing itself apart at the seams. Fantastic worldbuilding, A+++

[decafcatfeen]

FEAR THE ECLIPSE THAT NEVER DAWNS

Welcome, director hatena.

select database you'd like to access.

SITE-OMEGA <-

ACCESS OPERATION PROCEEDURES -

HAMMERTIME

OPERATION HAMMERTIME

Is to eliminate any timeline based warp drives to access anchoridia by fusing timelines into a single point, however, with easy and immediate severing allowed by the alternate anchorridges incase of emergency. [ D A T A - E X P U N G E D - B Y - AMD1]

[ D A T A - E X P U N G E D - B Y - AMD1]

[ D A T A - E X P U N G E D - B Y - AMD1]

This will allow for this operation to be successful, as we have through an improving bootstrap paradox gained an unparalleled knowledge of temporal physics. Also, even in sad thanks due to director hatenas active predicament, in her NULL-TIME state locked room, which has shown unparalleled methods of cooling and other sciences.

PROPER CREDENTIALS DETECTED..

OPENING DM WITH CEDAR EVERWOOD.

CE - hey hatena. Sorry that we haven't figured out the situation yet. But I'm glad we've managed to restructure the nanites you always carried into a computer.

DHT - it is alright, administrator. This was unexpected on all ends, even considering this happened in.. God knows how long. How old am I again? I had to scrap the clock in this thing.

CE - last time I checked? 205. Probably older, still, I can't stop apologizing, and don't call me administrator. You're practically part of the divine council with how much you know, and I'm probably upgrading you to DVC clearance due to sheer practicality.

DHT - very well then, I do hope to be of use to the divine council, and the additional clearance will help me not need to bypass the flaws in the anchornet client.

ATTACHED - ANCHORNET BYPASS CLIENT.ZIP ANCHORNET BUGS.TXT

CE - Damn. I thought I could've gotten those. I guess we aren't perfect. Albeit Vivi will iron those out in a matter of seconds, so.

ATTACHED

LVL-DVC-DHT UPGRADE.EXE

LVL-DVC INPUT CODE. You know what it is hatena.

I had to throw the DVC upgrade together in a few minutes. The first time, I've upgraded an omega-director to the DVC, so don't be surprised it's barebones.

Your access should work perfectly.

DHT - Thank you cedar, I think I may have found temporal hijinks that might let me out without immediately killing me.

ATTACHED - my theory.png

CE - holy shit

TDC has joined the chat.

TDC - Hello.

TDC - oh my fucking [UKN UNICODE]

VE has joined the chat.

VE - lotsa noise here! Qjar is going on?

VE - she cooked :LMAO:

CE - /DISABLE RECORDER.AIC

[RECORDING DISABLED]