Maybe when the time-duplicate dies or is killed, the history it came from is re-set. My theory is, you can only go back in time if the thing that you did in the past has allready happened. So, Fry could go to 1947 and shag his nan because he had allready done that. And Bender could blow up NNY in 2309 because he had allready done that.

OK. No more posts from me in this thread.

Time travel is so simple compared to the myriad ways in which people fail to understand causality and the implications of time travel.

If both time and space are infinite, little poots in continuums caused by life forms may have no significance to nature. Sort of like farting in a hurricane.

That's exactly what I was wondering about.

My theory for that is that particular Lars was at the beginning was actually a different person and not Fry.  I mean, when you think about it, it's the only way that part of the movie makes sense (otherwise, there would be two Lars, which doesn't make sense).


However, since Fry wanted to go back in time for pizza, he met himself from an hour earlier (Fry/Lars) - causing the second Fry to become Lars, because the original Fry had used the time code (although, the second Fry didn't realize he was Lars until Bender tried to kill him).

Also, an interesting thing to note is that, if Bender hadn't tried to kill Fry (Lars), then it's possible Fry still could've had the idea to freeze himself and go back to the regular timeline.  If he had done this, then there definitely would've been two Fry's (Fry, and an older Fry).  However, because Fry used the time code and met up with his past self, and also because Bender tried to kill the second Fry (Lars) - that's how he became Lars.

And by the way, I consider Lars not to truly be Fry, since his personality is very different from Fry's.

No, the tattoo is still facing the right way, since Bender licked the back of the 'strip', and attached it to Fry's butt face-up.

As for Fryrish, well, there's no reason to believe that Fry(Lars) didn't give Fry Jnr. the clover between 2000 and 2010. More importantly, all this timeline does is move his situation twelve years forward; he still disappears in mysterious circumstances.

By that I mean: his folks know where he is until 2010, when he goes on a two-year trip to the Arctic - but they don't know immediately when he returns, as he might not have been able to/thought about contacting his family while on the boat. But if they did any kind of search (though their not wanting to search so as not to waste taxpayers' funds might still have held), they'd know that the ship docked in ONY harbour, and that he was seen leaving the boat, and then the harbour in a taxi. He arrives at his home (the taxi driver could confirm this), which moments later erupts into flame, and then explodes. No body is found.

Without the search, we still have a mysterious disappearance; according to his family, he never comes back from the Arctic, and no body is found. It does affect things with Seymour (although by 2012, Seymour does look pretty much the way he did at the end of JB), though he might very well have spent 2010-2012 pining for Fry anyhow.

I do have one question, though; right at the end, Bender invites all his time-duplicates up then, instead of 'when they were logically supposed to' appear. But by that point, hadn't all the duplicates already served their purpose, seeing as how they'd delivered all the treasures to the scammers? (If not, and TuxBender emerged before(?) the scammers had arrived, since none of their stuff is around, how would Fry, or indeed anyone, know about the time code or any of it?) 

That's about the only time-related part that still confuses me.     

EDIT: Having re-read this, and realised that Bender made his duplicates wait until the end, I have concluded that I'm a moron.   

However, wouldn't people (namely, the scammers) have noticed that no Bender had returned? Or am I overthinking things?

How'd the original tattoo get drawn?

 

Originally posted by Pitt Clemens:
How'd the original tattoo get drawn?

I...have no idea. 

Seriously, though, it might be on the commentary.

 

Originally posted by FryFangirlLisa:
That's exactly what I was wondering about.

My theory for that is that particular Lars was at the beginning was actually a different person and not Fry.  I mean, when you think about it, it's the only way that part of the movie makes sense (otherwise, there would be two Lars, which doesn't make sense).


However, since Fry wanted to go back in time for pizza, he met himself from an hour earlier (Fry/Lars) - causing the second Fry to become Lars, because the original Fry had used the time code (although, the second Fry didn't realize he was Lars until Bender tried to kill him).

Also, an interesting thing to note is that, if Bender hadn't tried to kill Fry (Lars), then it's possible Fry still could've had the idea to freeze himself and go back to the regular timeline.  If he had done this, then there definitely would've been two Fry's (Fry, and an older Fry).  However, because Fry used the time code and met up with his past self, and also because Bender tried to kill the second Fry (Lars) - that's how he became Lars.

And by the way, I consider Lars not to truly be Fry, since his personality is very different from Fry's.

I can solve your Fry-and-Lars-Are-Not-One Thing with this: maybe Lars didn't warn them about Nudar because that would cause him to cease to exist. When they first notice the time tattoo, the Professor tells them it's no big deal, and is ignored until the scammers sense the information. If he warned them not to trust Nudar, they would never give the tattoo a second glance, looking for any information. Therefore, th time code would never be used, and he would never be. Also, he probably used a different personality so Leela would never notice the similiarities. Leela only liked Fry in "Parasite Lost" because he was a different Fry. So maybe Lars remembered this and tried not being himself.

Also, why do you think ther are two Lars? There's only two Frys: Fry A, who gets frozen, wakes up in 2999, goes back in time in 3007, freezes himself in 2000, and wakes up in 3007. And Fry B, who gets frozen in 2000, wakes up in 2999, goes back in time in 3007, becomes Lars and freezes himself in 2012, awakens in 3002, and dies in 3007. There is no way for there to be two Lars or Frys by the end of this. Only one Lars and one Fry.

   

Originally posted by Quarma:
 I can solve your Fry-and-Lars-Are-Not-One Thing with this: maybe Lars didn't warn them about Nudar because that would cause him to cease to exist. When they first notice the time tattoo, the Professor tells them it's no big deal, and is ignored until the scammers sense the information. If he warned them not to trust Nudar, they would never give the tattoo a second glance, looking for any information. Therefore, th time code would never be used, and he would never be. Also, he probably used a different personality so Leela would never notice the similiarities. Leela only liked Fry in "Parasite Lost" because he was a different Fry. So maybe Lars remembered this and tried not being himself.

Also, why do you think ther are two Lars? There's only two Frys: Fry A, who gets frozen, wakes up in 2999, goes back in time in 3007, freezes himself in 2000, and wakes up in 3007. And Fry B, who gets frozen in 2000, wakes up in 2999, goes back in time in 3007, becomes Lars and freezes himself in 2012, awakens in 3002, and dies in 3007. There is no way for there to be two Lars or Frys by the end of this. Only one Lars and one Fry.

Well, what you said there makes sense.  ^^

And I agree with everything, except the last part.


It's very confusing.  Because at the beginning of the movie, how could Lars even exist?

Remember, that Fry hadn't used the time code at this particular time.  In fact, it wasn't until Fry used the time code a second time (to go back to one-hour-ago), that he met his "earlier" self and therefore, that's how his duplicate was created (Lars).


So anyway, you can only explain this in two ways. 

Either theory A:  Lars (at the beginning) is actually a different person and not Fry.  But somehow, he later becomes Fry because of Bender trying to kill him and other reasons (maybe fate, like loving Leela or something). 

OR

Theory B:  Lars at the beginning of the movie is Fry, but doesn't want to warn anyone about the scammers and the time sphere for fear that he won't exist.  (actually, if that really is the case - then I guess the "jumping around" that the writers did with the timelines confused me a lot, lol)

You're not all thinking five-dimensionally!

Blimey, I knew I forgot to post something!

Here's my time-sphere theory.

At least, it's somewhere in there, I'm sure...

Wow!

I've gotta say, I agree with EVERYTHING you said there, Xanfor!   


That was a well done post, indeed. 

You answered all the questions I had about BBS, and you also answered other questions I hadn't thought of.  Congrats!

That's what tears the universe athunder. It's made like that intentionally.

Quarma, iciewynd: Thanks; I think that answers my question. It's a scifi series, but it is a comedy, too - total accuracy or sense isn't necessary.   

Something's just occurred to me:

Hermes gets Bender to go back and get a 'copy' of his body. But seeing as there'd only been one of Hermes before all the time-travelling malarky, wouldn't that mean that Bender had to kill Hermes (since JarHermes didn't care what happened to the body's head) to get the body, thus killing Hermes and making a search for a body moot? And more importantly, (ignoring the idea of parallel universes created by altering time for the moment) wouldn't that cause a pretty huge paradox? (Or would that just mean he's been in that jar longer than the limbo competition?) I.e., Hermes losing his body to Bender because he got Bender to get his body because he lost it.

I...I get it, I think. Bender might've cloned(?) Hermes; he'd realise that if Hermes were dead, he wouldn't be able to pay, so he'd need to do something that would let the original and the 'new body' exist at the same time. (He wouldn't understand or care about time paradoxes, which with this code wouldn't allow anyhow, but he'd clue into losing payment.) Unless the code somehow provided a body (or maybe GalaxyGod did).

Does any of that make sense?   

 

Originally posted by gaschief:
... When someone travels away from the current time in this (our universe)... at that point where the time traveller arrives, they diverge along another 4 dimensional path...

In other words, another universe, timeline, reality, or whatever you want to call it splits from the original at that event.
This idea was used by Larry Niven in “All the Myriad Ways.” While, strictly speaking, it isn’t used as a time-travel mechanism, it’s the same principle.

Originally posted by gaschief:
... Therefore arguably the original Futurama episodes remain en-tact, and will always remain en-tact, whilst the new plotlines created by the event of BBS can happily co-exist in the new divergent universe(s).

Every time there’s an event resulting in an apparent paradox due to an artifact of time-travel, there is no such paradox because the universe spacetime splits to accommodate the changes?
Huh.
So that means there’s a-hundred-thirty-seven (or whatever) slightly different flavors of the Futurama universe Futurama-verse ‘Rama-verse resulting from the temporal hijinks of BBS?

No wonder there’s a rip in the sky...

Originally posted by gaschief:
I would add as well, as someone suggested futher back in this thread that their may be different types of time travel utilised in futurama...

Wikipedia seems to agree – at least about there being different kinds of time travel.
I hope the warranty on my brain covers this sorta’ thing...

 

Originally posted by Xanfor:
I also agree with the different types of time travel theory, although my version only requires one fifth-dimensional path...

Five dim- [*Ow!*]
[SC massages sides of own head]
My brain hurts...

 

Originally posted by PazuzuJr:
and also have't we seen the professor's back before? I'm sure he didn't have his 'ink.'   

Well, since two years (roughly) passed between the end of the series and Bender's Big Score, you can assume that the Professor got his "Thug Life" tattoo during that time period. 

 

Originally posted by futz:
Yes, only a 5th dimension.

So, to disentangle all of this we must use dimensional analysis? 
I'll just... ooze back out under the door now...