It's mostly the same complaint people have about Renegade: it put the main story on hiatus. Once we get used to daily updates, anything less is jarring.
With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Alabama
That's a different story - you're actually denying people who already exist their existence.
- Location
- Earth
My problem with the Renegade is that the stuff he's doing is often (not always, but too often) much less interesting.
Silverias
Seeing is Believing
- Location
- Squiddy Places
It's not so different in this sort of situation, though.
If time travel can happen, it means all time is "Available" at once.
If someone proves to me I have a biological son in the future, do I have a responsibility to ensure his conception?
(This is obviously a fantastic situation, and the "Stop using a condom" thing is hyperbole in the real world)
- Location
- Switzerland
I don't feel this arc was pointless. I was definitely invested in Mandate!Paul and his life, even though it won't have any influence on the main storyline (at least not at the moment). IMO it really drove home the point that these are people in the alternate universes that get extinguished whenever time is changed, even though we usually never get to see them.
- Location
- Alabama
Honestly - it's a curious question.
The thing about time travel is that changing the past is a conscious decision to change your present, usually for some purpose of positive change. If your present is a shithole, either for just yourself or for others, and you knew that you'd have a son at some point in the future, would changing the past prevent your son from growing up in that shithole? Would that not be better than letting him grow up in some despotic hellscape?
Alex Prior
We are Many
- Location
- A charming, foreign port
Oh please. Homestuck makes sense. This travesty that Zoat managed to wake here... okay, so it still makes sense, somewhat, but it could've been so much more cleanly done.
Which, now that I think on it, highlights the fact Paul has no bloody clue what he's doing. An actual Time Player would've closed off those loops much more cleanly. Or, you know, shunted Mandate Timeline off into a Doomed state out of pragmatism. Unfortunately, an Orange Lantern would never ever do that.
...Where was I going with this again?
frozenchicken
Does not have a custom title.
I actually really liked these episodes. Unraveling the complexity of the situation has been pretty fun, I look forward to seeing how Mandate OL tries to save his friends, I'm amused at the thought that there might someday be a Nabu who is super grateful to OL for his existence, I was intrigued by the clue about the origin of the ring (since if the ring needed to be provided by the timeline it means it has a conditional origin), and to top it off I love the pun in the title.
Nashk
Tyrant of Kyushu
- Location
- Kyoshi Island
While I agree that this arc was annoying for me, it isn't pointless. There are now new big players on the board that can appear in the future.
So unless the new characters literally never show up again, the arc isn't useless.
- Location
- Oblivion
I think that should be "There".
I really hope Paragon eventually erases the Time Trapper entirely.
- Location
- USA
if nothing else, to tell you what happened to Vandal Savage after he escaped being continually eaten by hyenas for months. Now he's been orange light disintegrated and we're not sure if he can come back, but the answer is probably. It is a comic book universe.
- Location
- Earth
I mean, just because someone is a time player doesn't INHERENTLY mean they're good at it. Bear in mind we've only got 4(?) examples of time players, only three of which we know very much about and only two of those three are normal examples, but we've seen plenty of examples of players not being all that good at fulfilling their role.
TimeTrapper!Paul could plausibly be a Thief of Time. Stealing "time" for his own gain (his timeline, which he wants to preserve) by sacrificing countless other timelines. Bard of Time works too, as he's tricking the Legion into doing his dirty work of destroying the timelines for him, thus indirectly inviting destruction of time(lines). Or, if you use the interpretation of the Witch class where they "break the rules of their aspect", then he could be a Witch of Time, as he's trying to break the rules of time to allow his timeline to exist. You could also make good arguments for Sylph (healing his timeline) or heir (inheriting the role of time).
Given that he IS an orange lantern, literally powered by greed, Thief seems by far the most fitting.
Count Rushcore
Self-Requested Ban
All right, this was pretty cool. I liked it a lot. Well, I have other feelings about things in this ark as well, but i am gonna keep my whining to myself in case it makes me look like an idiot later (a likely scenario. Also *hinthintwinkwinknudgenudge, people).
I loved the darker tone at the end. The general idea alone would make for an interesting short-story (and it certainly did here, justifying its existence even if this turns out to have no bearing down the line) and I am excited to see how timetrapper-fuckery will give enlightenpaul headaches in the future. There was talk about time leaking from the mandate loop, which sounds deliciously problematic.
I loved the darker tone at the end. The general idea alone would make for an interesting short-story (and it certainly did here, justifying its existence even if this turns out to have no bearing down the line) and I am excited to see how timetrapper-fuckery will give enlightenpaul headaches in the future. There was talk about time leaking from the mandate loop, which sounds deliciously problematic.
- Pronouns
- she/her
You do realise With This Ring is just a very long shaggy dog story, don't you?
hance1986
The One Above All.
I liked this arc. I read it as a connected Elseworlds kind of story and I loved those.
I can imagine Paul's English overtones over scenes of him donning the identity of the Time Trapper. Dox narrowing his eyes at something Paul says and working against him, unknowingly helping the Time Trapper. The Guardians pretending not to notice Time Trapper watching them.
Paul in the purple robes, slow walking towards the screen, string violin music highlighting his final words on how one day. One day he will find a solution. And he walks into the camera before the credits roll.
I can imagine Paul's English overtones over scenes of him donning the identity of the Time Trapper. Dox narrowing his eyes at something Paul says and working against him, unknowingly helping the Time Trapper. The Guardians pretending not to notice Time Trapper watching them.
Paul in the purple robes, slow walking towards the screen, string violin music highlighting his final words on how one day. One day he will find a solution. And he walks into the camera before the credits roll.
Indeed. Mandated!Paul is the arsehole who will be/is/was responsible for overclocking Yggdrasil, shattering the multiversal time-stream and kicking off the Infinite Time Loops.
Although why we just spent a month reading a ITL omake remains beyond me.
Seem we are getting back to the actual story tomorrow. Excellent.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't?
- Location
- Elsewhere
And if you want to fool a level twelve intellect, all you have to do it wear a purple bedsheet.
They'll never figure it out.
Definitely the worst comment you have done today.
hance1986
The One Above All.
There will be more arcs, so how do you know this one's the worst?
*gasp* You're a time traveller too!
Quick, give me the lotto numbers!
So let me get this straight, this arc is less about time travel and more about an alternate version of Paul like Renegade or the ones from Fool's Canon?
- Location
- USA
No, Paul's ring came from Hinon. The other versions of him were all supposed to happen somehow too. It's more likely that this is where Gravyen's ring came from. He's not supposed to exist, nor is his timeline. I think I even remember that being why Ambush Bug didn't show up to mess with him. There's only supposed to be one Orange Lantern Paul. There are two.
If the ring Time-Paul just sent back didn't just go back to the start of his own timeline, or the loop he's sustaining at least, it's the reason we've got a Paragon and Renegade story line to begin with. And given Renegade is the one who's not supposed to exist, safe to say it went to him. A lot of people are annoyed at the whole arc basically amounting to nothing for either of the two timelines we're used to following, but it might be that this is the backstory explaining why we've even got two timelines to begin with.
Still entirely fair not to like it though. It took a long time to reach this (rather small) payoff, and it's far from confirmed in the story that this is actually what happened. And it's just really hard to get into a brand new timeline when you want to know what's happening in the one you're used to, and especially when you feel there's a good chance the whole experience is going to get undone by more time travel. You don't want to get attached to characters that are just going to return to not existing within a chapter, after all.
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