You know I possibly figure it out something that makes this head alien a lot more dangerous then the others, he’s probably having a existential crisis due to finding out the number of times he fails and succeed in different timelines. Kind in the same fashion as OwlMan in Doc’s “Crises on two Earths” event.
Also speaking of Timelines this moment makes this confusing, If this story is doing something with Multiverse theory than how is Head Alien able to just erase Bobby here by murdering his parents in the past? Shouldn’t that just make an alternate timeline rather than change what’s going on concurrently?
I get that this is supposed to be here to remind everyone that Head Alien is dangerous and he can kill you easily if he decided to do so on a whim. But I just can’t help thinking about this stuff when I see it.
Wasn’t the Dorothy-Walky one not an alternate timeline, but an alternate UNIVERSE entirely? I think I recall that being the setup, anyway. In which case HAII is probably talking about killing the specific iteration of Bobby’s parents that produce this Bobby Walkerton and then changing his mind, I think?
Not entirely certain, but I recall the ultimate endgame of this arc involves a closed time loop spanning years and multiple alternate universes. (Alternately, jumping universes and killing a Walky or Joyce somehow weakens Bobby through whatever dimensional virus made Sal’s new arm, because dimensional probability or something? This part wasn’t super well-explained as I recall.)
To try and rephrase: Universes in the Greater Willis Continuum aren’t alternate timelines, they’re separate distinct iterations of (roughly) the same people in infinite variations where slightly different things happen. Dagon’s band of hoppers weren’t splitting off into a new timeline when they made their jump, they went from one iteration to another. (As would any other alternate JFOs who might make the same choice.)
The timeline, inasmuch as time travel happens in it, seems to generally operate in the same kind of closed loop style we get in, say, Prisoner of Azkaban. That is, the past doesn’t really change because the time travel’s already been accounted for. Walky can’t make Joyce change shirts, and will end up in The Cheese. The JFO’s efforts to screw over The Cheese directly result in his existence, because he has to exist for them to work against him. HAII can’t really prevent this Bobby from existing entirely. And I‘m pretty sure HAII’s plot Jeremy Bearimys around on itself for the rest of this comic and makes a couple loop-de-loops in Shortpacked, resulting in at least two self-sustaining Mobius strips of time loops.
Ooooh so Head Alien is from a different universe not a different timeline. So this isn’t about a time based multiverse it’s about a dimensional based multiverse?
Pretty much, yeah. The Machete blinking out stuff muddles it a bit, and there are at least a couple instances of jumping through time and dimension I can remember from my hazy binge read, but different universe means dimension jump, generally. (And I don’t think HAII can jump time with just his new powers here? Could be wrong, though. REALLY hazy, that binge read was.)
Personally, I’ve always disliked this sort of timeline line concept, mostly because of paradoxes and loops. But that’s because I’m more of a branching timeline kind of guy.
But if I had to guess, I’d say time’s more fluid thanks to HA II glitching out The Cheese and having that multidimensional shift (thanks to Sal being Sal), thus making any reality and its future more arbitrary at his whim. He is is the king, rebel, and witness of this reality, but a prisoner thanks to the complexes he’s developed because of that power.
The question I’d have on this is if others can make the future kids disappear as well if they express resolve that disproves such existence in their timelines.
I’m into a single solid timeline where all time travel already happened and so is precalculated into the events, myself.
Especially because that gives us the fun of trying to save somebody by faking their death exactly so that it’s still the exact same event from any perspective that matters while yoinking the person themselves into the future.
So apparently HA just saying he’s going to kill Bobby Walkerton’s parents is enough for him to start fading out of existence? HA does have a track record of his plans failing, you know.
We’ll see that Head Alien II actually has a really good track record of his plans succeeding across the multiverse. It probably helps that he’s playing on God Mode for when they don’t.
This comic would be way funnier if Bobby also spontaneously changed physical sex or some other obvious attribute – if nothing else, cutting off someone’s limbs would likely change the position one had sex in, which could change which specific sperm fertilized the egg, potentially radically changing the future child. Or age would be another good one – Bobby is suddenly like four years younger and with different hair.
“change the position one had sex in, which could change which specific sperm fertilized the egg, potentially radically changing the future child” WHOA! I suddenly see (1) a nearly infinite hyperspace of potential offspring of my parents, in which me & my sibs are the 4/inf who were realized (2) Im here because “my” sperm was the one who beat out [X] others that particular night …
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Back to the Futuring yourself as torture device…. Truly fantastic.
space-time continuum continuity is stupid
You know I possibly figure it out something that makes this head alien a lot more dangerous then the others, he’s probably having a existential crisis due to finding out the number of times he fails and succeed in different timelines. Kind in the same fashion as OwlMan in Doc’s “Crises on two Earths” event.
Also speaking of Timelines this moment makes this confusing, If this story is doing something with Multiverse theory than how is Head Alien able to just erase Bobby here by murdering his parents in the past? Shouldn’t that just make an alternate timeline rather than change what’s going on concurrently?
I get that this is supposed to be here to remind everyone that Head Alien is dangerous and he can kill you easily if he decided to do so on a whim. But I just can’t help thinking about this stuff when I see it.
Wasn’t the Dorothy-Walky one not an alternate timeline, but an alternate UNIVERSE entirely? I think I recall that being the setup, anyway. In which case HAII is probably talking about killing the specific iteration of Bobby’s parents that produce this Bobby Walkerton and then changing his mind, I think?
Not entirely certain, but I recall the ultimate endgame of this arc involves a closed time loop spanning years and multiple alternate universes. (Alternately, jumping universes and killing a Walky or Joyce somehow weakens Bobby through whatever dimensional virus made Sal’s new arm, because dimensional probability or something? This part wasn’t super well-explained as I recall.)
To try and rephrase: Universes in the Greater Willis Continuum aren’t alternate timelines, they’re separate distinct iterations of (roughly) the same people in infinite variations where slightly different things happen. Dagon’s band of hoppers weren’t splitting off into a new timeline when they made their jump, they went from one iteration to another. (As would any other alternate JFOs who might make the same choice.)
The timeline, inasmuch as time travel happens in it, seems to generally operate in the same kind of closed loop style we get in, say, Prisoner of Azkaban. That is, the past doesn’t really change because the time travel’s already been accounted for. Walky can’t make Joyce change shirts, and will end up in The Cheese. The JFO’s efforts to screw over The Cheese directly result in his existence, because he has to exist for them to work against him. HAII can’t really prevent this Bobby from existing entirely. And I‘m pretty sure HAII’s plot Jeremy Bearimys around on itself for the rest of this comic and makes a couple loop-de-loops in Shortpacked, resulting in at least two self-sustaining Mobius strips of time loops.
Ooooh so Head Alien is from a different universe not a different timeline. So this isn’t about a time based multiverse it’s about a dimensional based multiverse?
Pretty much, yeah. The Machete blinking out stuff muddles it a bit, and there are at least a couple instances of jumping through time and dimension I can remember from my hazy binge read, but different universe means dimension jump, generally. (And I don’t think HAII can jump time with just his new powers here? Could be wrong, though. REALLY hazy, that binge read was.)
But time IS a dimension, isnt it? (not that i REALLY glom that)
Personally, I’ve always disliked this sort of timeline line concept, mostly because of paradoxes and loops. But that’s because I’m more of a branching timeline kind of guy.
But if I had to guess, I’d say time’s more fluid thanks to HA II glitching out The Cheese and having that multidimensional shift (thanks to Sal being Sal), thus making any reality and its future more arbitrary at his whim. He is is the king, rebel, and witness of this reality, but a prisoner thanks to the complexes he’s developed because of that power.
The question I’d have on this is if others can make the future kids disappear as well if they express resolve that disproves such existence in their timelines.
I’m into a single solid timeline where all time travel already happened and so is precalculated into the events, myself.
Especially because that gives us the fun of trying to save somebody by faking their death exactly so that it’s still the exact same event from any perspective that matters while yoinking the person themselves into the future.
You’re tearing me apart, HAII!
So apparently HA just saying he’s going to kill Bobby Walkerton’s parents is enough for him to start fading out of existence? HA does have a track record of his plans failing, you know.
We’ll see that Head Alien II actually has a really good track record of his plans succeeding across the multiverse. It probably helps that he’s playing on God Mode for when they don’t.
This comic would be way funnier if Bobby also spontaneously changed physical sex or some other obvious attribute – if nothing else, cutting off someone’s limbs would likely change the position one had sex in, which could change which specific sperm fertilized the egg, potentially radically changing the future child. Or age would be another good one – Bobby is suddenly like four years younger and with different hair.
“change the position one had sex in, which could change which specific sperm fertilized the egg, potentially radically changing the future child” WHOA! I suddenly see (1) a nearly infinite hyperspace of potential offspring of my parents, in which me & my sibs are the 4/inf who were realized (2) Im here because “my” sperm was the one who beat out [X] others that particular night …