Kumori's Identity (Spoilers)

[wardenferry419]

And that too. Thanks Raidem.

[Arjan]

Lydia was being sacrificed at the masquerade that cowl and kumori was attending.

That sucks being sacrificed by your time traveling self 

[wardenferry419]

Yeah, self-hatred is a terrible thing.

[groinkick]

That sucks being sacrificed by your time traveling self 

I'm not entertaining that idea in the slightest.  However if time travel was going on, she had already experienced that situation, and had been saved.  If she kept the time line in tact, she would know that she wasn't going to die, and therefor wasn't putting herself at risk.  Actually she would be saving herself because if she prevented the event from happening she'd be altering the future, dramatically altering her future self.

[forumghost]

But that assumes a stable-time-loop is in effect, rather than a multiverse of Divergent Timelines like in the Dresdenverse

[wardenferry419]

Somewhere Raidem's ears are twitching and he senses that words "time travel" being used.

[groinkick]

But that assumes a stable-time-loop is in effect, rather than a multiverse of Divergent Timelines like in the Dresdenverse

1.  Either an error on Jim's part or
2.  You can alter time without creating an alternate reality.

On one hand you have realities splintering off from events, making time travel basically meaningless, and on the other you have the White Council against time travel, and evidence that you can alter the time line you're in.

I guess the situation can be that you alter the time you're in, while the original time line splinters off, and you aren't in that time line...  Well you would be, but the one who altered the time wouldn't be? 

[wardenferry419]

I need some temporal dramamine.

[raidem]

You know, one of the biggest problems or at least one of the issues for my "Marcone is Harry and Murphy's son theory" is the durability of Marcone's birth in multiple alternate realities.  They'd require that both Harry and Murphy survive in many different realities.  And, that they have some relationship where they get it on and conceive of Marcone.  And that, in some fashion involving time travel, Marcone is placed in a contemporary timeline of his parents.  The Dresdenverse would then further allow for 'safe' paradoxes, contradictions that arise from event interactions between out of linear sequence actions made by father, son, mother.  We do know though that Marcone and Harry often directly impact life/death of the other.  Marcone even mentions poking Fate in the eye I think in Dead Beat when he helps save Harry from Corpsetaker after Gard had mentioned it was Harry's fate to die that day.

This theory about Marcone being descended from both Harry and Murphy has some but limited circumstantial evidence but it mainly exists as an artisticly desired plot point on my part.

As to the splinters, time loops, and divergent timelines, I think they can all be included in the Dresdenverse. 
1) There is free will choice that causes changes in the timeline.  Much evidence in the form of WOJ and spoilers about Mirror Mirror support this idea.
2) We know it takes lots of juice to change particular things per conservation of history in Cold Days, so that is the mechanism where stable time loops or an unbroken timeline would occur. 
3) Again from Vadderung, we have evidence that suggest time travel can cause splintered timelines that arise from free willed choices with time travel in the mix.  AKA, Harry goes back in time to kill his grandfather.  This is time travel, check.  This is free willed choice, check.  This is paradox if Harry is successful, check.  Then a branch at that moment spins off with his grandfather dying off right then and there so who knows what that branch looks like.  We however do know mostly what the branch looks like where he is unsuccessful in killing off his grandfather. There might be some alterations though with his grandfather learning about his grandson coming back in time to off him and subsequent effects (feedback) of this knowledge may have back up the branch.  There would like be some time loop'ish equation going on until a steady state equation would be reached.

[Arjan]

With time travel I assume just all logic is lost and the story is driven by narrative necessity and the rule of cool. You need a very good writer to pull this off, one who is able to manipulate the reader into thinking it can even make sense altogether.

[raidem]

I agree. But I think he has to maintain the logic established in scifi literature regarding time travel.  He will likely adapt tropes regarding time travel into his plots.  He has to be consistent with his in book talking heads said to be knowledgeable about time, time travel and his woj's on topics regarding alternate realities, time travel, cosmic view, nature of time, free will, causal effects going off in every direction, etc.

[wardenferry419]

It seems that the best use of time travel is for Harry to move backward in time to one point specifically and then only for a limited time frame. For him to move to multiple points would seem to be too much like autocorrecting hanging plot points and story discrepancies.

[raidem]

But see this can lead to an error where we think that is the only time travel takes place.  I too like a simplistic view of Harry time traveling with least amount of absurdities at first glance.  But this presupposes Harry is the only time traveler, or even the only person along with him on his time traveling mission. The meshing of these other actors, some at cross purposes should create the more complexities than Harry's limited engagement would suggest.

[Ananda]

The nly really good time travel film I’ve seen is Primer. There’s some serial on netflix that my husband puts on called Timless or Timelines or Timesomething. They have time machines and do all these goofy adventures, but the plot is so linear. They really don’t put any depth into it.

[wardenferry419]

Tmeless? Modifed to Timeless.