Back to the Future and its Fucked Up, Impossible Timeline

[Mr-K]

Okay.

We are going to call the main Marty of our narrative Marty(P) and Doc(P), the rest will have numbers.

Marty(P) meets up with Doc(P) in the parking lot of the Twin Pines mall in 1985(P) and goes back in time to 1955(P). He does some shit there and meets with Doc(2) that fucks with the time line and creates 1985(2).

When he goes back to 1985(2) he sees Marty(2) and Doc(2) have the same encounter that he has, but now it's the Lone Pines Mall. Marty(2) grew up with successful parents in a happy family, but somehow came to an essentially identical event involving Doc(2) and traveling back to 1955.

Now, when Marty(2) goes back to 1955, he should be going back to 1955(P), because that's the point where the new timeline was created by Marty(P), and Marty (P) SHOULD be there, as is shown in BTTF 2 when Marty(P) spends the movie dodging himself. But he isn't. When Marty(P) goes back there's only one additional Marty, and it is seemingly the same Marty, not Marty (2) reliving the events of the first movie.

My question is this. What the fuck happened to Marty(2)?

[YellerDog]

Dead in a ditch.

[cka]

banged his mom, was his own dad, became a paradox

that's why he shakes like a paint-stirring machine today

[mollipen]

The only way Marty(2) can go back to 1955(P) is if he hit the EXACT moment in time that Marty(P) hit. Otherwise, simply by Marty(P) showing up in 1955(P), it instantly turns into an alternate 1955.

Either way, it's basically a big cycle. To Mary(2), he sees himself as Marty(P). So, he goes back in time, with the same knowledge that the original Marty(P) had, and a new timeline is created. The Marty(2) of that new timeline sees himself as Marty(P), goes back in time, and creates a new timeline. Repeat for infinity.

[epmode]

[dog$]

I'd look here.

[kingoffighters]

Ponder something more relevant or important.

[Mr-K]

Either way, it's basically a big cycle. To Mary(2), he sees himself as Marty(P). So, he goes back in time, with the same knowledge that the original Marty(P) had, and a new timeline is created. The Marty(2) of that new timeline sees himself as Marty(P), goes back in time, and creates a new timeline. Repeat for infinity.

The timeline isn't created when Marty(P) sees himself go back though. You see the changes before Marty(2) goes back. In 2 Marty(P) isn't seeing Marty(2), he's seeing himself. So when Marty (2) goes back, Marty(P) should be there already. And when Marty(P) goes back, his copy and Marty(2) should be there.

[ElCapichan]

The series is extremely flawed. i watched all 3 movie recently, and there are several times where you can call bullshit on things that were either said earlier that weren't possible but happen, and things that were said to be impossible yet happen. Thank god the movies are so awesome that you can look past its flaws and enjoy it.

To answer your question seriously, I'd say that there is some chance that the the Marty that Marty(P) sees go back in time, regardless of having had a different uprising, could have had the exact same mindset and therefore done the exact same things as Marty(P) when having gone back in time. Seeing as tim travel has not yet been invented and there are only guesses on how it works, you could assume that there are certain events in history that have to happen no matter what. No amount of time travel could change these events, but only change how these events occur. So in theory, even though this Marty(2) had a different upbringing, he was destined to go back in time and do exactly what Marty(P) had done there. Of course that is all just in theory, and that theory more than likely wont hold with the rest of the series.

Funny you brought that up, cause that never really occurred to me as a major flaw, but thinking about it now, it is the first major paradox in the series. Now there is another major paradox that was bothering me on my last watch. In 2, Old Biff goes back to 1955 to give young Biff the almanac. This creates a new timeline that Marty, Doc, Jenn, and Einstein get stuck in. Ok, so it kind of makes sense, but where it falls apart is when the Doc says that they can leave Jenn in this alternate 1985 cause if they fic things in 1955, things will correct themselves around Jenn in 1985. My problem with this is why didn't things change around them in the future when Old Biff fucked things up? So on one hand it creates an alternate timeline but on the other it just auto fixes?

[Nash]

TNL - Taking the fun out of things since 2001.