I previously posted a context for the whatever happens happens argument and decided to try to come up for one for the variable/reset/we can change the past side. What I came up with was more fun, more ridiculous, and probably too long or convoluted to be right. It is largely based on Charles Stross’s new story “Palimpsest” and an older Lost theory I don’t have the diligence to look up and credit but it also involved Ben and Widmore trying to save the world in a time loop. Enjoy!
1. Sometime in the future, Jacob and the Man In Black inadvertently cause the end of the either by purple-sky-inducing electromagnetic event or fooling around with the donkey wheel.
2. However, before said apocalypse, the two are zapped into the past. Realizing what they have done, they hatch a plan to stop themselves from ending the world via the grandfather paradox or some incarnation thereof—essentially, they prevent themselves from ever coming to the island and ending the world.
3. The plan works! However, instead of being whisked out of existence, Jacob and the MIB become (nod to Stross) unmoored from the timeline—their origins have been erased from existence and the two exist in a perpetual time loop, like Locke’s compass, but never aging and never dying.
4. However, whatever they have done has a different effect on the MIB than on Jacob. As a corporeal body, MIB becomes untethered from the space time continuum—he both is and isn’t there, spatially and temporally. This allows him to read the pasts (not the minds) of other people—like Dr. Manhattan, he can see the past clearly, though the future’s a little fuzzy. He can manipulate his appearance based on what he wants people to see, whether it be their own mother or a column of smoke.
5. The two accept their immortality on the beautiful island, though MIB is a little perturbed. Little do they know, course correction is at work, and in their absence Richard comes along, ends the world, and is whisked back in time.
6. Jacob gives Richard the immortality treatment, though without the whole dislodged consciousness thing (progress!), erasing Richard's origins and thus preventing the future incarnation from ending the world. In his absence, of course, Ben and Widmore stumble upon the old Armageddon machine and do the deed. They all get whisked back in time, again.
7. At this point everyone involved starts looking a little chagrinned. Jacob sends Richard to indoctrinate Ben and Widmore into the merry time loop, thus preventing them from ending the world. Meanwhile, Jacob, Richard, and MIB decide to change the strategy—instead of waiting for the inevitable, why not try to figure out in advance who will take Ben and Widmore’s place, and stop them before it happens?
8. Of course, how will they possibly figure out who course correction has picked to end the world? It’s not like the universe will make it obvious. Then, one day, a plane falls out of the sky, and-- Holy Marbles! There might just be survivors!
9. So Ben and Richard get info on the survivors, Jacob makes some lists, and they narrow it down to Locke. Only they’re not sure. Then they get an idea—why not send them all back to the past, and kill them there? Maybe the universe won’t figure it all out until it’s too late to blenderize humanity.
10. So Ben turns the wheel, the losties go back in time, they die in the incident, and everyone waits… Meanwhile, the universe is getting confused—it’s course correcting against its own course correcting, and next thing you know Desmond stops Charlie from dying long enough to shut down the communications jamming equipment. The O6 get off the island before Ben can turn the wheel and don’t go back into the past to die. This is a problem.
11. By this point the island is starting to freak out a little bit. In other words it’s become a destabilized chunk of the space time continuum, popping in and out of existence, while remnants of different histories seem to exist side by side and course correction has run rampant. It’s almost as if—gasp!—the island has a mind of its own.
12. However, there’s a plan—get the O6 back to the island. And they pull it off, and even kill off Locke in the process. When the plane enters Island Airspace, Jack and co. finally get the belated time jump that the universe had planned for them and make it back to the 70s where destiny awaits.
13. However, and I’ll leave things off at lucky number thirteen, There’s one variable the powers that be forgot—Faraday. He wasn’t supposed to be on the island when Ben turned the wheel, and sure enough he comes up with some cockamamie scheme to nuke the site of the swan and prevent the 815ers from coming to the island. This will probably graduate the losties to Jacob,MIB, Ben, Widmore,Richard status in the merry time loop. However, it is not likely to prevent the end of the world, as course correction starts turning its wheels yet again…
1. Sometime in the future, Jacob and the Man In Black inadvertently cause the end of the either by purple-sky-inducing electromagnetic event or fooling around with the donkey wheel.
2. However, before said apocalypse, the two are zapped into the past. Realizing what they have done, they hatch a plan to stop themselves from ending the world via the grandfather paradox or some incarnation thereof—essentially, they prevent themselves from ever coming to the island and ending the world.
3. The plan works! However, instead of being whisked out of existence, Jacob and the MIB become (nod to Stross) unmoored from the timeline—their origins have been erased from existence and the two exist in a perpetual time loop, like Locke’s compass, but never aging and never dying.
4. However, whatever they have done has a different effect on the MIB than on Jacob. As a corporeal body, MIB becomes untethered from the space time continuum—he both is and isn’t there, spatially and temporally. This allows him to read the pasts (not the minds) of other people—like Dr. Manhattan, he can see the past clearly, though the future’s a little fuzzy. He can manipulate his appearance based on what he wants people to see, whether it be their own mother or a column of smoke.
5. The two accept their immortality on the beautiful island, though MIB is a little perturbed. Little do they know, course correction is at work, and in their absence Richard comes along, ends the world, and is whisked back in time.
6. Jacob gives Richard the immortality treatment, though without the whole dislodged consciousness thing (progress!), erasing Richard's origins and thus preventing the future incarnation from ending the world. In his absence, of course, Ben and Widmore stumble upon the old Armageddon machine and do the deed. They all get whisked back in time, again.
7. At this point everyone involved starts looking a little chagrinned. Jacob sends Richard to indoctrinate Ben and Widmore into the merry time loop, thus preventing them from ending the world. Meanwhile, Jacob, Richard, and MIB decide to change the strategy—instead of waiting for the inevitable, why not try to figure out in advance who will take Ben and Widmore’s place, and stop them before it happens?
8. Of course, how will they possibly figure out who course correction has picked to end the world? It’s not like the universe will make it obvious. Then, one day, a plane falls out of the sky, and-- Holy Marbles! There might just be survivors!
9. So Ben and Richard get info on the survivors, Jacob makes some lists, and they narrow it down to Locke. Only they’re not sure. Then they get an idea—why not send them all back to the past, and kill them there? Maybe the universe won’t figure it all out until it’s too late to blenderize humanity.
10. So Ben turns the wheel, the losties go back in time, they die in the incident, and everyone waits… Meanwhile, the universe is getting confused—it’s course correcting against its own course correcting, and next thing you know Desmond stops Charlie from dying long enough to shut down the communications jamming equipment. The O6 get off the island before Ben can turn the wheel and don’t go back into the past to die. This is a problem.
11. By this point the island is starting to freak out a little bit. In other words it’s become a destabilized chunk of the space time continuum, popping in and out of existence, while remnants of different histories seem to exist side by side and course correction has run rampant. It’s almost as if—gasp!—the island has a mind of its own.
12. However, there’s a plan—get the O6 back to the island. And they pull it off, and even kill off Locke in the process. When the plane enters Island Airspace, Jack and co. finally get the belated time jump that the universe had planned for them and make it back to the 70s where destiny awaits.
13. However, and I’ll leave things off at lucky number thirteen, There’s one variable the powers that be forgot—Faraday. He wasn’t supposed to be on the island when Ben turned the wheel, and sure enough he comes up with some cockamamie scheme to nuke the site of the swan and prevent the 815ers from coming to the island. This will probably graduate the losties to Jacob,MIB, Ben, Widmore,Richard status in the merry time loop. However, it is not likely to prevent the end of the world, as course correction starts turning its wheels yet again…
