this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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I'll go first. Mine is that I can't stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree. It's like being continually reminded that I am in a movie. I swear the success of that movie has directly lead to every blockbuster having to have a joke every 30 seconds

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[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 84 points 11 months ago (10 children)

Terminator is better than Terminator 2, and as cool as it is Terminator 2 should never have been made (or should have a different script).

I know the mob is raising the pitchfork, but hear me out, there are two main ways time travel can solve the grandparent paradox, these are Singular Timeline (i.e. something will prevent you from killing your grandfather) or Multiple Timeline (you kill him but in doing so you created an alternate timeline). Terminator 2 is clearly a MT model, because they delay the rise of Skynet, but Terminator is a ST movie. The way you can understand it's an ST is because the cause-consequences form a perfect cycle (which couldn't happen on an MT story), i.e. Reese goes back to save Sarah -> Reese impregnates Sarah and teaches her how to defend herself from Terminators and avoid Skynet -> Sarah gives birth to and teaches John -> John uses the knowledge to start a resistance -> The resistance is so strong that Skynet sends a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah -> Reese goes back to save Sarah...

The awesome thing about Terminator is how you only realise this at the end of the Movie, that nothing they did mattered, because that's what happened before, the timeline is fixed, humanity will suffer but they'll win eventually.

If Terminator was a MT then the cycle breaks, i.e. there needs to be a beginning, a first time around when the original timeline didn't had any time travelers. How did that timeline looked like? John couldn't exist, which means that sending a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah was not possible, Reese couldn't have gone back without the Terminator technology, which they wouldn't have unless the resistance was winning, and if they are winning without John, the Terminator must have gone back to kill someone else and when Reese went back he accidentally found Sarah, impregnated her and coincidentally made a better commander for the resistance which accidentally and created a perfect loop so that next time he would be sent back and meet Sarah because she was the target (what are the odds of that). Then why is the movie not about this? Why is the movie about the Nth loop after the timeline was changed? The reason is that Terminator was thought as a ST movie, but when they wanted to write a sequel they for some reason decided to allow changes in the timeline which broke the first movie.

[–] jrbaconcheese@yall.theatl.social 34 points 11 months ago

I love T2 so I’m simply upvoting your passion for T1.

[–] swordsmanluke@programming.dev 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Ah! A fellow holder of the belief that time travel stories are better when they are internally consistent! I hate e.g. Looper for having time travel that makes no goddamn sense. It takes me out of the story when the characters are literally watching the timeline change before them as it magically radiates out from one point. And then our protagonists somehow remember the original timeline... Bah.

...So I must ask - have you seen Primer? If not, maybe you'd like it!

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Of course I've seen Primer, enough times to understand it even (I hope), it's my favourite time travel movie.

[–] muzzle@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If you want your time travel to be internally consistent go watch "FAQ about time travel" it's British, low budget, mostly consistent, and hilarious.

[–] meleecrits@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not to mention that it's fucking stupid to have all your infiltration units have the exact same face and body. The first movie even showed other terminators with different faces, so why is every T-800 Arnold?

That said, T2 is one of my favorite movies.

[–] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

Never watch Primer.

[–] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

You would love the episode in S4 of Miracle Workers which addresses this scenario.

Basically, the Terminators are in an endless loop killing Johns and being killed by them. It's just a boring job for them now.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 4 points 11 months ago

I really, really appreciate this unpopular opinion, it made me see things in a different light. Unfortunately, the convincing you just did pales in comparison to how good Terminator 2 was. It wasn't just a cool flick, a sequel, a "time travel movie", etc, it was something special and it was amazing. But I fully understand and appreciate when time travel in movies doesn't make 100% sense, because it almost never does ..

[–] 7of9@startrek.website 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As an action film it's okay, but I forgot most about the movie, which tells me I didn't had any strong feelings about it.

[–] 7of9@startrek.website 1 points 11 months ago

Fair enough, it just outdoes any dissonance between T1 and T2 by a factor of 10, hence being curious about your thoughts ;-)

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

David?

Love him as the doctor.

[–] thecrotch@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago

Also Eddie furlong is fucking insufferable

[–] cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world -4 points 11 months ago (4 children)

You've way over analysed it. It'd be like pissing on Star Wars because the Force has no basis in science.

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago

As someone who enjoys the magic systems of Brandon Sanderson, I do piss on Star Wars for not having a logical basis for The Force.

Actually it's not that bad. Harry Potter is much worse.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

No, the problem is internal consistency, in Star Wars the force works the same way in all films. But imagine if on one movie someone was shown using the force to move objects, and on the next movie the same character was shown trying to reach for something important and failing and not using the force and when asked he replies "it's not possible to move objects with the force". That's the problem here, internal consistency, on one movie it's said it works one way, on the other it's said it works differently. I love both movies, I just think T2 shitted on one of the main things from T1.

[–] AWittyUsername@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Except the prequels establish force powers that we never see again and so do the sequels. Like force super speed in the phantom menace.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Just because you don't see them again doesn't mean they're impossible.

[–] cooopsspace@infosec.pub 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You're right

And you know how they explained time travel not making sense in Doctor Who? They called it "wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff" and hand waved all that shit away.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And that's fine, but if one Dr. Who explained time travel in detail, showing things that would be impossible, the next doctor shouldn't violate those rules, it's about in-universe consistency.

[–] muzzle@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I'll go ahead and guess that you haven't seen much doctor who :)

Dr who has av lot of qualities, consistency is not one of them (and it's OK)

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

You are correct, I haven't. But if the next Doctor said Time travel was impossible and spent the entire show not time traveling (because time travel is impossible) I bet that would raise some eyebrows.

[–] dudinax@programming.dev 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No, the "Single Time Line" bit is a basic feature of T1, part of what makes it great, that T2 simply throws away.

[–] cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I'm so glad I saw the films as a young kid then. To me it was just a cool horror film with a murder bot and the second was Arnie the robot hero!