Picard: Change them? You mean change the past? Q, even if you have been able to bring me back in time somehow, surely you must realize that any alteration in this timeline will have a profound impact on the future.
Q: Please! Spare me your egotistical musings on your pivotal role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're not that important.
Q: Please! Spare me your egotistical musings on your pivotal role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're not that important.
"Seriously, little wren, suppose my father-in-law, that abominable King Victor
, had died in youth, as he nearly did. Suppose my mother-in-law, Queen Mary, had married Georgie York, who was secretly very fond of her—only he could not show it, being so English. Why, then you would have had a quite different Royal Family from the one you have now. But do you suppose anything else would have been the smallest bit different? Pooh!"
, had died in youth, as he nearly did. Suppose my mother-in-law, Queen Mary, had married Georgie York, who was secretly very fond of her—only he could not show it, being so English. Why, then you would have had a quite different Royal Family from the one you have now. But do you suppose anything else would have been the smallest bit different? Pooh!"— King and Joker, by Peter Dickinson
Harvey: All modern research points to the elasticity of time, rather than a brittle framework.
Crichton: Can it be corrected?
Harvey: If nudged closely enough to course, events have a way of restructuring themselves. If the participants are the same, the venue's the same, the motivation's the same, then, well, the outcome is likely to be the same.
Crichton: Can it be corrected?
Harvey: If nudged closely enough to course, events have a way of restructuring themselves. If the participants are the same, the venue's the same, the motivation's the same, then, well, the outcome is likely to be the same.
Giga: Interesting..... What's different?
Rock: Well, Bass is a robot like me, and we generally get into fights. He was made by Doctor Wily, a mad scientist I usually fight, but I will sometimes do other activities with him, like Soccer. I don't know what else is different, though I do sometimes hear Doctor Light be disappointed that his internet advancement research didn't go anywhere.
Giga: Dr. Wily is my enemy as well....He wants revenge on the world because his robotics research wasn't funded.
Rock: ...Wow. So, Dr. Wily doesn't get it right either way...
Rock: Well, Bass is a robot like me, and we generally get into fights. He was made by Doctor Wily, a mad scientist I usually fight, but I will sometimes do other activities with him, like Soccer. I don't know what else is different, though I do sometimes hear Doctor Light be disappointed that his internet advancement research didn't go anywhere.
Giga: Dr. Wily is my enemy as well....He wants revenge on the world because his robotics research wasn't funded.
Rock: ...Wow. So, Dr. Wily doesn't get it right either way...
Question: What makes a good bloodswap?note
Answer: People seem to like [my bloodswap fic] primarily because I've done a lot of worldbuilding and I've managed to change the characters while keeping true to who they are at a fundamental level; they have different opinions and different designs and different living situations and they still feel familiar because how they work and react to things has not been changed.
— Sock, author of Derpbent, here
"Ozpin, you knew this would happen. You knew the moment you made Ruby a leader. Why do you torture yourself like this? How many times are you going to repeat these past 2 years?"
I stand, pull her up by the arm and lock onto her eyes. “As many times as it takes to see her come out of this war alive, Glynda. It has to be her. Don’t you see that?”
"Give up, Ozpin! It’s over!" She pushes me, hands balled into fists. "It’s been 50 damn times! You either need to give this up, or make some huge, drastic change the next time around! And even then, this war will STILL take place! Nothing will ever change that… nothing…" Choking on sobs, she pulls me into her arms.
I stand, pull her up by the arm and lock onto her eyes. “As many times as it takes to see her come out of this war alive, Glynda. It has to be her. Don’t you see that?”
"Give up, Ozpin! It’s over!" She pushes me, hands balled into fists. "It’s been 50 damn times! You either need to give this up, or make some huge, drastic change the next time around! And even then, this war will STILL take place! Nothing will ever change that… nothing…" Choking on sobs, she pulls me into her arms.
— RWBY fic Did You Make A Mistake?
No matter the timeline, some legends will endure.
"The reason why 9/11 is still so prominent in the minds of Americans today is because it's seen as the start to the world that we live in now. The reason we like to imagine a world without 9/11, probably the reason you clicked on this video, is to think of a world that would've been better because those towers never fell. It's cathartic to believe that if we had prevented 9/11, the issues we face now wouldn't have happened. But after my research, I just can't believe that anymore. And oddly, it's sadder. Instead of our world being an exception because of a dramatic terrorist attack, our world really is something that was just going to happen anyway. In this alternate world, we just get a decade more of peace before the events we face occur due to events being put into motion centuries ago. Entirely out of our control."
"So what's more ominous? The fact that 9/11 caused the world we live in now, or the world's history making an attack like 9/11 inevitable?"
"So what's more ominous? The fact that 9/11 caused the world we live in now, or the world's history making an attack like 9/11 inevitable?"
"Now, I know there are those of you out there who are thinking "hey, c'mon, alternate universe stories have value beyond just being places where creators can slaughter characters with impunity! Sometimes it's nice to see a different take on things, and it's not like they're completely obsessed with death!" And you are wrong. And I know this because I've read my all-time favorite alternate universe story, What If #10: "What If The Punisher's Family Hadn't Been Killed." So, what would happen if the Punisher's familly hadn't been killed? Well, as it turns out... if the Punisher's family hadn't been killed, the Punisher's family would still be killed. That is just how What If? rolls."
This is an almost scene-for-scene remake of the 1971 movie, only with the violent cat and mouse duo randomly inserted into the events. And it's all put together with nothing but the finest animation a sweatshop can forcibly produce. The sheer laziness on display is pretty unapologetic. Tom and Jerry are completely irrelevant to the plot. They just squabble and are cut to at random during musical numbers.
The war ends eventually. Maybe it’s not better, or worse, than it would have been if Visser One had chosen a different host. They take longer to figure out how to defeat Visser Three without Eva’s insight to the way yeerk leadership works, but they get there in the end. Tom dies. Rachel dies. James and Kelly and several thousand humans and hork-bajir and taxxons die. Seventeen thousand yeerks meet a terrible icy death in the vacuum of space; Eva finds out about it later and can’t bring herself to disapprove.
— "What if Eva was never a controller?", All Assorted Animorphs AUs
Shrimp dimension Rick: So, tell the truth, man. No shame. You're looking at your shrimp body like: "Whaaat?!"
Human dimension Rick: Ah. Is it that obvious? I'm sorry. Yeah, my original body plan is more bipedal. Uh, ape-descended.
Shrimp dimension Rick: Yeah? Weird. Does your house look like a tree? Or...
Human dimension Rick: No, it looks like this. It's like, identical to this, actually.
Shrimp dimension Rick: That is such a mindf[beep], man.
Human dimension Rick: Ah. Is it that obvious? I'm sorry. Yeah, my original body plan is more bipedal. Uh, ape-descended.
Shrimp dimension Rick: Yeah? Weird. Does your house look like a tree? Or...
Human dimension Rick: No, it looks like this. It's like, identical to this, actually.
Shrimp dimension Rick: That is such a mindf[beep], man.
In our story, Bobby Kennedy survived the Ambassador Hotel shooting and resumed his 1968 presidential campaign. In fantasy, we bent the arc of history, but our obstruction of fate proved temporary. Even with the intervention of the writer's pen, destiny brought the world the same ultimate results: the Humphrey-Nixon-Wallace face-off in November 1968, Nixon's victory, Chappaquiddick and the end of Edward Kennedy's presidential prospects, Watergate, Nixon's resignation, the presidencies of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan—
And a world that never saw Robert Francis Kennedy grow old.
We need not be surprised. Scripture tells us that life's trajectory is fixed and unchangeable. In Ecclesiastes 1:9, King Solomon wrote, "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done."
And a world that never saw Robert Francis Kennedy grow old.
We need not be surprised. Scripture tells us that life's trajectory is fixed and unchangeable. In Ecclesiastes 1:9, King Solomon wrote, "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done."
"So this is how I die... down an arm and killed by an android. Why does this feel oddly familiar?"
— Gohan, Dragon Ball Z Abridged
Nobita: If my fate changes, you may not be born.
Sewashi: No worries. It will balance out in other areas. Even if the flow of the history changes, I'll still be born. For example, say you are going to Osaka. There are different paths you can take—but whatever you pick, as long as the direction is the same, you will eventually arrive in Osaka.
Sewashi: No worries. It will balance out in other areas. Even if the flow of the history changes, I'll still be born. For example, say you are going to Osaka. There are different paths you can take—but whatever you pick, as long as the direction is the same, you will eventually arrive in Osaka.
— Doraemon, Chapter 1
"You said there were certain intersections that would always be inevitable. You had an Alfred. My Bruce has an Alfred. Different worlds, different times... yet there it is. Certain people, certain events, certain strands of spaghetti, drawn to each other like... like magnets. I've read all about temporal paradoxes and causal loops. But this is more than that. Inevitable intersections are something none of the theories could have anticipated 'cause, well, how do you explain that except for... fate?"
— Barry Allen, The Flash (2023)
