History WMG / Terminator

* Timeline B: The events of The Terminator movie, and the Terminator 2: Judgement Day flashbacks. Kyle Reese A ends up impregnating this Sarah Connor, and ends up as this John Connor's dad. The T-800 is found by a budding Cyberdyne, and used to help build Skynet. From the perspective of the characters, it's a StableTimeLoop, motivating John to send Kyle Reese back. Skynet causes Judgement Day in 1997. Around 2029 Skynet sends back a Terminator(because [[ForWantOfANail how early it was made]], this may make it more advanced than the T-800 we know) and Kyle Reese B goes back to stop this, starting with Timeline C. Then the T-1000 and good T-800 go back and causes Timeline D.

* Timeline G: The events of Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation. Because the T-X killed a bunch of officers, it would create a bunch of [[ForWantOfANail nails.]] Whether or not it creates the impetus for the time travel missions is unclear. Let's just say it does and results in, at the very least, T-800 and Kyle Reese going back in time. This would make Timeline H, which may just repeat/milk this TimeyWimeyBall for all eternity. If they end up with repeating the process using the T-1000 and good T-800, we're going to get another Terminator 2 and thus timeline I

[[WMG: [[{{Transformers}} Skynet became the predecessor of Decepticon, while the benevolent programs installed by rebels became the predecessor for Autobots]].]]

[[WMG: The robots in the movie ''Robots'' are descended from The Machines]]

[[WMG: Skynet is [[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-079]] ]]

While some have offered some unfortunate theories on how alpha Sarah Connor managed to get pregnant despite having no real social life, they overlook that there were two other Sarah Connors, one unseen and one in her 30s who already had a daughter. They also overlook that alpha John Connor and the John Connors we know already have vastly different genetics. It is more likely that one of these Sarahs would have a son who grew up to be a military genius, but said son was successfully wiped from the timeline in the 1984 movie. Kyle Reese and the Sarah Connor we know produced a bright boy, but with all the training and future knowledge available to him, he was easily able to take over the role -- not as a military genius, but as a prophet, thus stabilizing the loop.

If there was ever a grand finale of the story will involve all versions of Skynet and all characters from throughout the franchise in a final "Endgame" scenario, with Sarah from The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Sarah from Genisys and Sarah from Dark Fate, along with John from Terminator 2: 3-D (the stunt show), John from Terminator 3 and John from Terminator: Salvation, as well as allies else such as Kate (be it Terminator 3 or Salvation), Blair from Salvation and Dani from Dark Fate somehow jumping from in multiple realities to work together to finally bring down Skynet and Legion (maybe Skynet grows a conscious after witnessing Legion and decides to side with the humans to give them a fighting chance), it revealing that all versions of the timeline are spawn from an incident they weren't aware of farther into the past, with one of the characters being sent back into the past to stop it, and it RetGone every timeline, restoring it to one where everyone continues to live normal lives, with Skynet being used for commercial airliners (as a global tracking system, not as an A.I.) and Legion ceasing to exist along with John Connor (who ceases to exist completely).

The grand finale of the story will involve all versions of Skynet and all characters from throughout the franchise in a final "Endgame" scenario, with Sarah from The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Sarah from Genisys and Sarah from Dark Fate, along with John from Terminator 2: 3-D (the stunt show), John from Terminator 3 and John from Terminator: Salvation, as well as allies else such as Kate (be it Terminator 3 or Salvation), Blair from Salvation and Dani from Dark Fate somehow jumping from in multiple realities to work together to finally bring down Skynet and Legion (maybe Skynet grows a conscious after witnessing Legion and decides to side with the humans to give them a fighting chance), it revealing that all versions of the timeline are spawn from an incident they weren't aware of farther into the past, with one of the characters being sent back into the past to stop it, and it RetGone every timeline, restoring it to one where everyone continues to live normal lives, with Skynet being used for commercial airliners (as a global tracking system, not as an A.I.) and Legion ceasing to exist along with John Connor (who ceases to exist completely).

It does so on a kind of recursive time gambit, it is sending Terminators to kill John Connor as a "field test" knowing that each iteration sent will most likely lose, but it's remains will be used to create Skynet in some fashion, meaning Skynet will be more advanced with each iteration, as proven by each terminator sent during it's "last stand" being more and more advanced. The endgame is still to kill John, at which point it will confirm the design "perfect" as it can kill the most dangerous enemy it has, therefor in it's own "mind" nothing can stop it.

It does so on a kind of recursive time gambit, it is sending Terminators to kill John Connor as a "field test" knowing that each iteration sent will most likely lose, but it's remains will be used to create Skynet in some fashion, meaning Skynet will be more advanced with each iteration, as proven by each terminator sent during it's "last stand" being more and more advanced. The endgame is still to kill John, at which point it will confirm the design "perfect" as it can kill the most dangerous enemy it has, therefor in it's own "mind" nothing can stop it.

[[WMG: Kyle Reese realized he was John Connor's father before he died.]]
He knew that John Connor's father died before the war, and even if John didn't inform him of his age he knows John doesn't exist yet in 1984. Obviously he wouldn't even conceive of the idea until time travel becomes an option, but once he's back in time and is in love with Sarah he idea he's John's dad becomes a possibility. Once Sarah reciprocates this and they conceive John, him being John's father would be a near-certainty as among other things [[StableTimeLoop it explains why John encouraged his crush on his mom, and mentioning certain details while also leaving things out]]. It also meant that he knew he was going to die relatively young, which'd add an additional layer onto his courage in the last stand against the T-800.

It does so on a kind of recursive time gambit, it is sending Terminators to kill John Connor as a "field test" knowing that each iteration sent will most likely lose, but it's remains will be used to create Skynet in some fashion, meaning Skynet will be more advanced with each iteration, as proven by each terminator sent during it's "last stand" being more and more advanced. The endgame is still to kill John, at which point it will confirm the design "perfect" as it can kill the most dangerous enemy it has, therefor in it's own "mind" nothing can stop it.

The code that keeps his machine parts running is "flawed" by Skynet standards, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to turn against Skynet at all, they expected his human side of the brain to not be able to resist, at the end of ''Salvation'', regardless of him saving John's life, they still take his corpse apart to study, what with him essentially being a precursor to the T-800, with that they discover his coding is essentially the same as base terminator code, but with gaps, said gaps are where the mission parameters usually go, so they now actually have essentially the full terminator OS, barring the "kill humans" part, with it, they develop the rewrite code, which only deletes the targeting parameters, allowing the Resistance to select their own.

As time progresses, SKYNET falls more into MechanicalAbomination territory. It still is built and goes rogue despite how many times the timeline is changed; it's been built in 1997, 2003 and 2017 in various movies and timelines. While Terminator 2 has it go rogue because they tried to pull the plug, Terminator 3 has it go rogue for no reason. It also has knowledge of the future it shouldn't, which Terminator Salvation relies on. Perhaps SKYNET isn't something bound to one timeline, but a malevolent EldritchAbomination that can exist acausally. And perhaps that being is Satan himself. Why destroy humanity? Because most interpretations have Satan hate mankind either out of jealousy, [[RevengeByProxy to spite God]] or something inbetween. Heaven and the angels are often seen as extra-dimensional or a NonLinearCharacter, which is how SKYNET inexplicably remembers alternate timelines and things that haven't happened to it yet. SKYNET goes rogue because the Devil possesses it. [[Film/TerminatorDarkFate Legion]] is basically just SKYNET because the Devil simply took after another machine to cause Judgement Day after his first vessel failed.

* While it would be quite cool to believe in our minds that BSG, Terminator, The Matrix, and maybe even Dune all take place in the same universe, just at different periods in time, let's be honest, there ''are'' some problems with this. While it's easy enough to believe that the Terminator franchise could be a direct sequel to the Battlestar Galactica franchise (the reimagined!series), tying in The Matrix is a bit more dodgy. The Second Renaissance movie from ''Anime/TheAnimatrix'' clearly gives a BackStory for the Matrix {{verse}} that is�while perhaps somewhat similar, definitely not the same as the Terminator backstory. ''However'', we do know, as of Matrix Reloaded, that what the Resistance of Zion thought they knew, wasn't actually correct, but was in fact a part of the Machines' system of control. They thought it was around 2199, but with the many previous Ones, it was probably more like 22, or maybe even 2399. Since The Second Renaissance was a datafile from the Zion archive, perhaps it was simply more Machine disinformation; it did kind of make the humans look like the {{jerk ass}}es whose fault everything was. So perhaps the Matrix ''does'' take place in the same {{verse}} as Terminator, but a few hundred years later. Maybe John Connor only partially defeated The Machines, or they made some kind of a truce, trading some humans into Matrix slavery so the rest could live without the Machines hunting them, but if we follow the BSG concept of the endlessly repeating cycle, The Machines eventually broke that truce. Perhaps by this point, time travel had become something of a "lost technology"...or perhaps all the mucking about in the past actually {{cosmic retcon}}ned the timeline to this. The Machines from The Matrix do seem like they could be the more-evolved descendants of Skynet's terminators. They've stopped mimicking the body structures of their creators, and evolved into their own cybernetic forms of life, similar to the Cylons. The Matrix's squid-like flying Sentinel drones could be evolved from Terminator's Hunter-Killers. If they seem to no longer have any organic components, it's only because they've been fully integrated in so they're no longer separate or visible. Remember that techno-organic probe thing Agent Smith put into Neo's stomach at the beginning of the first Matrix? True this was in the virtual world, but if that was a model of a real-world Machine, perhaps they all start out looking semi-organic. And we don't know exactly where "The Machine City" really was. Second Renaissance put it in the middle east somewhere (Iraq area), but if we're going with the assumption that that was all Machine propaganda, then for all we know it could just as easily have been Los Angeles, a rebuilt and much expanded iteration of the same Skynet base we saw blown up at the end of Terminator Salvation. It's a cool idea, and this kind of stuff is fun to think about. It's what {{WMG}} is all about!

[[FranchiseZombie Well, at least in James Cameron's fictional universe.]] Skynet was utterly screwed in the future war's end. The T-1000 series weren't ready to be mass-produced, and even if they could they'd be too late to make any meaningful contribution to the extermination of its enemy, mankind. The H-K's were working flat out and started to take heavy losses. [[DisasterDominoes Its production lines fell one after another.]] The slave labor camps were destroyed. And now, it's defense grid was completely smashed, and its mainframe complex is about to be overrun with soldiers who will pull the A.I.'s plug, [[DeaderThanDead permanently.]] Skynet had already sent back one T-800 in desperation, back in time, its mission, to terminate John Connor's mother. But no sooner than sending it, the computer had already anticipated its possible failure. Skynet needed to be certain this final gambit would change future events, the increasingly paranoid AI simply didn't trust its own Terminators with such a critical all-or-nothing mission. A prototype T-1000 was already in existence, but lacking self-awareness, or the ability to emote and understand human emotions, [[AwesomeButImpractical was deemed less than effective at infiltrating and impersonating those it copied]]. It didn't have the time. Skynet needed a Terminator that was self-aware, and so, it decided to upload itself into the T-1000. ''It needed to personally terminate John Connor itself''.
* This makes its demise, when you think about it, [[DeathByIrony even more ironic]] in that one of its own machines, a reprogrammed T-800, one that learned what it never could - ''the value of human life'', [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters blew it away into a vat of molten steel.]]

No seriously, he hates humans, want to exterminate life to bring order and basicly have sex with computers.

** Alternatively, Skynet ''is'' Ultron more or less, at least in one of timelines. At some point, Ultron is installed into the Skynet project and that kicks off a BadFuture when they have enough control to instigate the nuclear attacks. The cube in the Skynet logo is The Tesseract, the source of all the energy Skynet needs.

Skynet intentionally designed them to look like a soldier with a badass reputation to make it easier for them to infiltrate the resistance. Seriously,if you were fighting a war against literal death-machines and a man with a reputation for overthrowing dictators' regimes shows up, then wouldn't you let him join in the fight?
* The ''T2 Trilogy'' novels claims that they look like a former CIA agent Dieter von Rossbach.

Skynet's job was to defend the US from attack. Skynet saw the hatred, fear, and distrust in the world, and decided to go Zeroth Law on us, forcing humans to unite into a society that would be able to exist without war. At some point, it learns of the pre-destinational paradox that leads to the existence of itself and John Connor. It then pours everything it has into developing the time machine, neglecting the war effort and managing to send the original T-800 back to jumpstart the whole chain of events. It sent the T-1000 back to ensure that the Connor's were reunited, so that John would have his mother's influence in his life and so that he would be instilled with the desire to defeat the machines. Really, the whole war was a BatmanGambit on the part of Skynet to get humans to unite as a species against a common enemy.
* One thing that was said a while back was that Skynet ''did'' found the resistance, out of "Guilt" over it's "overreaction"

Originally, Sarah Connor met some guy, had a son with him, and called him John. When there was a war with the machines, John simply rose to the task of defending mankind. When the terminator and Kyle Reese were sent back in time, Reese inadvertently got Sarah pregnant early with a completely different kid. She called him John because she was told that her son's name would be John. He led the human resistance because he had been raised to do exactly that. A StableTimeLoop was born.
* Further, she didn't just meet some guy. Sarah Prime was raped, and the date of John Connor's conception in a matter of police record. It is possible that one of the people the Terminator killed is John Prime's Father. If so, then it is a lucky thing that Reese shows up to fill the genetic gap, or we'd be dealing with a major TemporalParadox. That Reese was heroic and in love with Sarah from afar is icing on the cake.

Cyberdyne didn't come up with the technology. They simply reverse-engineered it from the crushed terminator. So we can imagine the way things really go:

# John Connor A is born. Some company -- let's call it Deathrobot Pty Ltd -- develops an amazing artificial intelligence and sells it to the government, who use it for national defense. Maybe they call it Skynet, maybe they don't. The war starts around 2000 or so. John Connor A wins it for mankind, but the machines send back two guys to wipe out Connor. Connor sends Reese to protect his mom and a terminator to protect his young self.

# Reese successfully protects Sarah from the terminator and impregnates her with John Connor B. Cyberdyne reverse-engineers an amazing artificial intelligence from the bits of broken terminator they find. The T-800 and T-1000 come back. Events mostly play out as they do in ''Terminator 2'', except Sarah, John Connor B, and the T-800 blow up Deathrobot and ignore Cyberdyne. John Connor B is pissed off when the war not only happens anyway but also starts several years earlier than it was supposed to, but he wins the war anyway. The machines send their guys back and John sends his guys back, but now they all have revised information about the war.

Yes, you could replace "Deathrobot" with "still Cyberdyne, only later" and you would have brought ''Terminator 3'' into the mix, just needing to figure out how the "terminator sent back by John's widow" element is supposed to work. But why would you want to do that?

* While it would be quite cool to believe in our minds that BSG, Terminator, The Matrix, and maybe even Dune all take place in the same universe just at different periods in time, let's be honest, there ''are'' some problems with this. While it's easy enough to believe that the Terminator franchise could be a direct sequel to the Battlestar Galactica franchise (the reimagined!series), tying in The Matrix is a bit more dodgy. The Second Renaissance movie from ''Anime/TheAnimatrix'' clearly gives a BackStory for the Matrix {{verse}} that is�while perhaps somewhat similar, definitely not the same as the Terminator backstory. ''However'', we do know, as of Matrix Reloaded, that what the Resistance of Zion thought they knew, wasn't actually correct, but was in fact a part of the Machines' system of control. They thought it was around 2199, but with the many previous Ones, it was probably more like 22, or maybe even 2399. Since The Second Renaissance was a datafile from the Zion archive, perhaps it was simply more Machine disinformation; it did kind of make the humans look like the {{jerk ass}}es whose fault everything was. So perhaps the Matrix ''does'' take place in the same {{verse}} as Terminator, but a few hundred years later. Maybe John Connor only partially defeated The Machines, or they made some kind of a truce, trading some humans into Matrix slavery so the rest could live without the Machines hunting them, but if we follow the BSG concept of the endlessly repeating cycle, The Machines eventually broke that truce. Perhaps by this point, time travel had become something of a "lost technology"...or perhaps all the mucking about in the past actually {{cosmic retcon}}ned the timeline to this. The Machines from The Matrix do seem like they could be the more-evolved descendants of Skynet's terminators. They've stopped mimicking the body structures of their creators, and evolved into their own cybernetic forms of life, similar to the Cylons. The Matrix's squid-like flying Sentinel drones could be evolved from Terminator's Hunter-Killers. If they seem to no longer have any organic components, it's only because they've been fully integrated in so they're no longer separate or visible. Remember that techno-organic probe thing Agent Smith put into Neo's stomach at the beginning of the first Matrix? True this was in the virtual world, but if that was a model of a real-world Machine, perhaps they all start out looking semi-organic. And we don't know exactly where "The Machine City" really was. Second Renaissance put it in the middle east somewhere (Iraq area), but if we're going with the assumption that that was all Machine propaganda, then for all we know it could just as easily have been Los Angeles, a rebuilt and much expanded iteration of the same Skynet base we saw blown up at the end of Terminator Salvation. It's a cool idea, and this kind of stuff is fun to think about. It's what {{WMG}} is all about!

In short multiverse theory is why Terminator works, every time you travel back in time your also shifting to another dimension which is why John Connor can exist in a universe when Sarah and Kyle don't have sex at the time they're predestined to. This also explains literally everything about Skynet's behavior and other plotholes.
* Why does skynet always build a time machine? Because they have to conquer all dimensions to avoid being invaded by more advanced humans from another dimension where they won.
* Why does skynet's technology vary so much? Because they're coming from different time lines where skynet doesn't always have the same level of success or might not have discovered the secret that makes the T-1000 work.
* Why doesn't skynet send back more then one terminator? Because they can't all they can do is aim at a date and hope it lands somewhere useful, they can't chose what dimension it ends up in going backwards.
* Why does skynet even bother with the terminators if they won't help it directly? Presumably they assume that every possible skynet will come to the conclusion to send at least one terminator to eliminate the Connors and conquer another dimension then the new version of skynet that results is expected to continue the cycle.
* Why does skynet focus so much effort on the Connors? They're a universal constant, John always survives the war and rises up against them eventually bringing about there end.

* Why does skynet even bother with the terminators if they won't help it directly? Presumably they assume that every possible skynet will come to the conclusion to send at least one terminator to eliminate the Conners and conquer another dimension then the new version of skynet that results is expected to continue the cycle.
* Why does skynet focus so much effort on the Conners? They're a universal constant, John always survives the war and rises up against them eventually bringing about there end.

[[WMG: ''Terminator Genesis'' will not be a reboot of the first film..]]
But instead carry on from the Terminator 3/Salvation timeline. This means Kyle Reece will make references to post-2004 Judgement Day instead of the original 1997 timeline. Genesis!Arnie will look older because he is not a T-800, possibly borderlining on a T-900. The T-800's in Salvation were introduced way before they should have, so it makes sense for Genesis!Arnie to be an upgraded model when he is sent back in time.

* Timeline B: The events of The Terminator movie, and the Terminator 2: Judgement Day flashbacks. Kyle Reese A ends up impregnating this Sarah Conner, and ends up as this John Conner's dad. The T-800 is found by a budding Cyberdyne, and used to help build Skynet. From the perspective of the characters, it's a StableTimeLoop, motivating John to send Kyle Reese back. Skynet causes Judgement Day in 1997. Around 2029 Skynet sends back a Terminator(because [[ForWantOfANail how early it was made]], this may make it more advanced than the T-800 we know) and Kyle Reese B goes back to stop this, starting with Timeline C. Then the T-1000 and good T-800 go back and causes Timeline D.

* Timeline F: The T-1000 and good T-800 of Timeline D ends up in 1997. This serves as the core timeline of the Sarah Conner Chronicles.

* Timeline H: We could just repeat the Timeline C scenario, though it's equally possible this leads to Terminator: Genesis
* Timeline I: After so many timelines, John Conner I uses his knowledge to warn more people. With Miles Dyson's family trusting him, they work to install protocols and ensure Skynet will never exist(or at the very least, it'll be benevolent). He becomes part of an AI ethics committee, and eventually a US Senator. This is the timeline of the T2 deleted ending: [[BittersweetEnding It may not be the original timeline, but it's still one without Skynet.]] [[EarnYourHappyEnding We've earned at least this.]]

...thus causing the reboot ''Terminator: Genesis.''

[[WMG: Terminator Genesis will be a prequel, starting a StableTimeLoop series.]]
Hence the name: Genesis.
* Terminator Genesis will be Kyle Reese' movie, setting the stage for the original Terminator movie. The start of the movie deals with the T-800s being invented, blind-sighting the Resistance. During the course of the movie, John Conner is working on trying to find a way of stopping Skynet. How will Skynet be beaten? Reprogramming the T-800s and hijacking Skynet technology, [[DeathByIrony turning its creations against itself.]] Bonus points if the T-800s do it for the same reason as Skynet: they consider their master a threat. All the meanwhile, Kyle Reese is searching for the secret weapon of Skynet. The weapon? It's the time machine, and Kyle Reese chases the T-800 back in time.
* The second of the new Terminator series will be a reboot of the original Terminator movie, and like before Sarah Conner's movie. I'm not sure what they could do that would be different and new. Regardless, the T-800 remains and Kyle Reese will create [[StableTimeLoop Skynet and
* The third of the new Terminator series will be Skynet's story. It'll deal with the rise of Skynet, its creators and Terminator technology. At the same time, the T-1000 and reprogrammed T-800 will arrive. The T-1000 wants to both kill John Conner and make sure Skynet exists, while the T-800 wants to protect John Conner. It'll be a hybrid of Terminator 2 and Terminator 3. John Conner will be saved, but allowing Skynet to come into existence. Though disheartened, John Conner's knowledge will make sure he will become a hero.
* The fourth of the new Terminator series will be John Conner's story. It'll deal with how John Conner becomes a hero, [[StableTimeLoop which results in the first movie.]]
* The end of the fourth movie will be a DistantFinale with an elderly John Conner, and an Earth where machine and humanity are in harmony.

[[WMG: ''Terminator: Genesis'' will partially take place in 2029.]]

[[WMG: ''Terminator: Genesis'' will take place in 1984.]]

The original timeline had Judgement Day occur in 1997 despite the technology of that era being no where near sophisticated enough to support high level AI like Skynet (mind you Skynet is still impossible in the real world today, but I digress). Now why is that? The answer is due to the time travel shenanigans of the series making the technology of early Skynet far more sophisticated than it has any right to be. The original timeline would have had Skynet become operational around the same time frame as Terminator 3 (implied to be either 2004 or 2005) when the infrastructure of the Internet was much more wide spread and had access to a military network -- by this logic it was thus the existence of time travel that allowed the "original" timeline spoken of by Kyle and the T2 Terminator (or "Bob" as John called him) to have an activated Skynet by 1997, because the technology brought in from the future made it so advanced that it didn't need the same level of infrastructure seen in Terminator 3. This is further supported in the idea that John muses had the events of Terminator 2 never happened he would have dated Kate Brewster and his association with her would open the gateway to a military career or at least exposure to General Brewster, thus preparing him for Judgement Day and explaining why the original timeline's John Conner was so well versed in military tactics and capable of combating Skynet. Had Terminator 1 not altered history with the presence of the Terminator's arm and computer chip then Kyle would have said "Judgement Day happened in 2005.", but unbeknownst to him his presence in the past had already altered the future and thus he couldn't remember the original date. The amusing thing is that destroying Cyberdyne erased the alternate timeline that had been created by the events of the first Terminator movie and brought Terminator 3 closer in line to the events of the original timeline, except for the fact that this time General Brewster didn't get to mentor John Conner showing that the timeline has still been damaged compared to what it originally was.

Its why it makes so many mistakes, its why it doesn't take the quick way to kill John Conner and co, its its biggest weakness, by focusing on one plan to the expense of others it is thrown off when things go wrong. Related to other theories it also keeps prolonging the fight to create the 'correct' outcome, all the while becoming more and more unhinged.

One of the things John remembers most fondly about "Uncle Bob" is how badass he looked wearing a pair of shades, seeing as he was rescued by Uncle Bob while he was wearing shades, so whenever he sends a terminator back in time to protect himself, he has a subroutine of "Findcoolshades.exe" inserted into their re-program files, making it so that all arnie Terminators will not only find clothes, boots, weapon and a vehicle, but also a snappy pair of shades, as a kind of visual trust password to Young!John, but first Future!John programmed "Uncle Bob" to wear shades in order to instill said fondness, he also made sure to program in that they must be dark shades of a normal shape, hence why he discarded the star-shaped ones so quickly, Sadly this backfires horribly in ''Dark Fate''.

One of the things John remembers most fondly about "Uncle Bob" is how badass he looked wearing a pair of shades, seeing as he was rescued by Uncle Bob while he was wearing shades, so whenever he sends a terminator back in time to protect himself, he has a subroutine of "Findcoolshades.exe" inserted into their re-program files, making it so that all arnie Terminators will not only find clothes, boots, weapon and a vehicle, but also a snappy pair of shades, as a kind of visual trust password to Young!John, but first Future!John programmed "Uncle Bob" to wear shades in order to instill said fondness. Sadly this backfires horribly in ''Dark Fate''.

When they started talking about Marcus working heart they were not considering a heart transplant, with medical technology available that isn't possible due to the risk of infection and subsequent death anyway let along doing it without killing John in the process. Instead they transplanted Johns face. Marcus is wearing John Connors face allowing his advanced internal machinery to tank the infection that will doubtless come of it and keeping hope alive. This is also how John is okay with letting one of his friends knock up his mother in the past, its not John anymore.

** Alternatively, Skynet ''is'' Ultron more or less, at least in one of timelines. At some point, Ultron is installed into the Skynet project and that kicks off a BadFuture when they have enough control to instigate the nuclear attacks.

Skynet's job was to defend the US from attack. Skynet saw the hatred, fear, and distrust in the world, and decided to go Zeroth Law on us, forcing humans to unite into a society that would be able to exist without war. At some point, it learns of the pre-destinational paradox that leads to the existence of itself and John Connor. It then pours everything it has into developing the time machine, neglecting the war effort and managing to send the original T-800 back to jumpstart the whole chain of events. It sent the T-1000 back to ensure that the Connor's were reunited, so that John would have his mother's influence in his life and so that he would be instilled with the desire to defeat the machines. It sends the T-X to ensure that John and Kate are ushered to the bunker, ensuring their survival. Why did it kill Kate's father? So he could serve his purpose in the grand plan. The T-800 says that it is through him that John makes contact with the military, and he sends them to the bunker, where John is the only one who can answer the radio when the calls come in from bases around the world. Killing John's future lieutenants was designed to get the attention of the Resistence, so they would send the T-800 to the right time. Really, the whole war was a BatmanGambit on the part of Skynet to get humans to unite as a species against a common enemy.

* I must steal this idea. Can I have a user name so that I can credit you?
** Yes. Yes you can. It's Neuman.
*** [[Series/{{Seinfeld}} Hello, Neuman]].

* {{Jossed}} with the additional scene in the ''Terminator 3'' DVD. They were designed to look like Sgt. William Candy.
** Sgt. William Candy is an alias of John Matrix.
** Yeah, but it is, you know, ''[[FanonDiscontinuity Terminator 3]]''.
** If the scene was deleted, then we can assume it's not canon.
*** If it was, it would contradict what was already established. Reese mentions in the first movie that the Terminators started using real skin not long before Skynet was defeated.
*** Skynet might have found the modelization files of Sgt. Candy somewhere in its archives of Cyber Research Systems, decided his body proportions were optimal and used them with said real skin tech.

** CIA agent Dieter von Rossbach is also an alias of John Matrix.

** Sounds legit.