Episode 69: Mandated
Takes place 22-24 October 2011.
Short version
Paul awakens in an Alternate History created by Vandal Savage, and goes back in time to undo the changes, but in the process, the alternate version of himself gains independent existence as the Time Trapper.
Longer version
After being hurled away by the Time Trapper, Paul awakens in a different history with different memories. He still arrived in universe 16 with an orange ring, but China is the dominant nation on Earth, and Paul is working for the Chinese government and living with Jade Nguyen. He receives a call from Nylor Truggs indicating that Truggs retains his memories, but Paul doesn't recognise him.
Two days later, a group of magic users alerts him to the alteration in history. Vandal Savage then appears in the sky, wearing a suit of time-manipulating armour, and announces that he intends to collapse the timeline and harvest energy from it to make one more suited to his interests. With help from the Guardians and Nylor Truggs, Paul flees into the past and kills Vandal Savage before he can make the change that caused the alternate timeline. The change causes Paul to become the Time Trapper, and to have always been the Time Trapper; he sends his original self back to the repaired timeline, then ponders his own (Chinese) timeline, which he has preserved in a bubble, seeking a way to restore it to full existence.
The title refers to the Mandate of Heaven that Paul was granted, the equivalent to Justice League membership.
- Alternate History: The premise of this episode. Vandal Savage tweaked China's history, and the ripples caused China to take over the world.
- Caught in the Ripple: Paul wakes up in a timeline where China became the dominant world power.
- Love Triangle: Paul is in a relationship with Jade Nguyen, who encourages him to also approach Jade Yifei. Paul is uncomfortable with the whole idea due to cultural holdover, but his compromise is for the relationship to be omnidirectional rather than simply a man with multiple partners. It possibly could have worked, except for the part where the world ended.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Vandal Savage went back six hundred years and altered the course of China's history, hoping to create a world ruled by himself. When he finds that it didn't work, and in fact the "him" from this timeline was permanently killed, he basically shrugs and decides to destroy everything and try again.
- Terminator Twosome: Paul has to go back and kill Vandal Savage before he can alter the timeline. Which takes him about a second, but he's then left with the problem of having erased the history he knows.
