Writing ? QUESTION FOR THE BRAVE

[Gabriel.C.Negus]

QUESTION FOR THE BRAVE:

If two characters are the key to a civilisation's birth: heroes, saviours, the spark of a future society, but that same future is where they already exist, older, altered, awakened…
…then who came first?

What if their future selves seeded their own past?
What if memory travels in loops, not lines?
What if the child you are is just your ghost remembering who you’ll become?

Is time the snake that bites its tail…
…or the tail that dreams the snake?

I’m writing a story where two protagonists exist after a catastrophe, but also before it, simultaneously the cause and the consequence.
They’re alive in the aftermath, but also walking toward the moment it all begins.
Their future selves become the signal.
Their younger selves follow the signal.
And the loop doesn’t break, it becomes the world.

So tell me…
Can a character be their own myth?

 

[Empress_Omnii]

Can a character be their own myth?

If that's what the author decides

 

[Gabriel.C.Negus]

If that's what the author decides

And how would you decide? ?
Plot twist? Prophecy? Glitch in the matrix?
Curious what myth you’d write.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I think I seen a JP done this concept.

Must admit.

A bloody mess even when technically I was following the future self that yeeted back into the past while the past self still exist.

 

[Deleted member 206441]

For some reason it reminds me of the Gwyneth Paltrow 1998 hit movie Sliding doors.

 

[Gabriel.C.Negus]

I think I seen a JP done this concept.

Must admit.

A bloody mess even when technically I was following the future self that yeeted back into the past while the past self still exist.

Never vibed with anime. Big eyes, dramatic stares, and scream-confessions weren’t my thing.
I like my time travel with a side of existential dread and poetic memory decay, not cherry blossoms and nosebleeds. ?

For some reason it reminds me of the Gwyneth Paltrow 1998 hit movie Sliding doors.

Sliding Doors is a neat comparison for the parallel outcomes, but narratively, mine leans more toward Source Code.
That whole recursive loop, signal-rewriting-reality feel.
Less “what if I missed the train,” more “what if I was the train, and started remembering the tracks before I ever rode them.” ?

 

[Deleted member 206441]

Or the lesser appreciated movie and book adaptation, Predestination /All You Zombies.

 

[Rezcore]

Boot strap paradox that. Another banger of a Capaldi Era Doctor episode

 

[Forcalor]

Never vibed with anime. Big eyes, dramatic stares, and scream-confessions weren’t my thing.
I like my time travel with a side of existential dread and poetic memory decay, not cherry blossoms and nosebleeds. ?

I guess you'd actually like anime because battling existentialism and attempting non sequitur storytelling is kind of their shtick. Try Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Space Dandy, Steins Gate -- any of those good old classics. I believe there are many more, but haven't actually watched anime for a while

Regarding your proposal it seems like an art project at its' core through and through, and it is hard to judge by premise or synopsis alone. If you can get it work, best wishes. Personally I enjoy this kind of stuff, but in my experience you should also have style and restraint, since the purpose of such narrative not to weird everyone out but to say something about human existence. Well, ideally. I feel like most people would be fine with just a trip, or anything that stimulate their senses

 

[CharlesEBrown]

QUESTION FOR THE BRAVE:

If two characters are the key to a civilisation's birth: heroes, saviours, the spark of a future society, but that same future is where they already exist, older, altered, awakened…
…then who came first?

What if their future selves seeded their own past?
What if memory travels in loops, not lines?
What if the child you are is just your ghost remembering who you’ll become?

Is time the snake that bites its tail…
…or the tail that dreams the snake?

I’m writing a story where two protagonists exist after a catastrophe, but also before it, simultaneously the cause and the consequence.
They’re alive in the aftermath, but also walking toward the moment it all begins.
Their future selves become the signal.
Their younger selves follow the signal.
And the loop doesn’t break, it becomes the world.

So tell me…
Can a character be their own myth?

Well, if an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine could lead to Zaphod Beeblebrox IV being the father of Zaphod Beeblebrox the III then anything is possible with time travel...

And then there's Time Rider, where a guy goes back into the past and becomes the mysterious stranger who knocked up his own grandma...

 

[Gabriel.C.Negus]

For some reason it reminds me of the Gwyneth Paltrow 1998 hit movie Sliding doors.

Sliding Doors is a neat comparison for the parallel outcomes, but narratively, mine leans more toward Source Code.
That whole recursive loop, signal-rewriting-reality feel.
Less “what if I missed the train,” more “what if I was the train, and started remembering the tracks before I ever rode them.” ?

I guess you'd actually like anime because battling existentialism and attempting non sequitur storytelling is kind of their shtick. Try Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Space Dandy, Steins Gate -- any of those good old classics. I believe there are many more, but haven't actually watched anime for a while

Regarding your proposal it seems like an art project at its' core through and through, and it is hard to judge by premise or synopsis alone. If you can get it work, best wishes. Personally I enjoy this kind of stuff, but in my experience you should also have style and restraint, since the purpose of such narrative not to weird everyone out but to say something about human existence. Well, ideally. I feel like most people would be fine with just a trip, or anything that stimulate their senses

Fair enough. That's a great list, actually. I’ll admit, I’ve heard Ghost in the Shell and Evangelion referenced in all the right places, so maybe it’s time I gave them a fair shot, cherry blossoms and all.

And yeah, you're absolutely right, it is kind of an art project at its core. A little weird, a little abstract, but the soul of it is human. I'm not trying to blow minds for the sake of weirdness, just... unearth something honest underneath the fiction. If that makes people feel something, great. If it weirds them out on the way there, bonus.

Appreciate the thought-out reply. You’ve officially made me consider watching something I swore I’d never touch. That’s a feat.

For some reason it reminds me of the Gwyneth Paltrow 1998 hit movie Sliding doors.

Sliding Doors is a neat comparison for the parallel outcomes, but narratively, mine leans more toward Source Code.
That whole recursive loop, signal-rewriting-reality feel.
Less “what if I missed the train,” more “what if I was the train, and started remembering the tracks before I ever rode them.” ?

Well, if an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine could lead to Zaphod Beeblebrox IV being the father of Zaphod Beeblebrox the III then anything is possible with time travel...

And then there's Time Rider, where a guy goes back into the past and becomes the mysterious stranger who knocked up his own grandma...

Time travel: the only genre where you can meet your great-grandfather and accidentally father him.
My loop's a bit cleaner (no unknowing grandma seduction), but I respect the madness.

 

[Gray_Mann]

Fair enough. That's a great list, actually. I’ll admit, I’ve heard Ghost in the Shell and Evangelion referenced in all the right places, so maybe it’s time I gave them a fair shot, cherry blossoms and all.

I'm not big on a lot of of the newer anime. I suppose Seinen is more my speed, which is typically more adult/mature-ish.

Cowboy Bebop will NOT do you wrong. In fact, if this is the first anime you watch, it'll kind of ruin most other anime for you because very few will be able to compare. It's also the main reason I listen to jazz nearly everyday. The soundtracks are absolute perfection.

If you want something a little darker, perhaps a tadbit zany in an uncomfortable way sometimes, but definitely mature, try Black Lagoon as well. It's like a early 90's action flick, but slower at times and nobody is really the good guy there, just different shades of unpleasant. Some of the episodes on that can get big-heavy. Cowboy Bebop is still a superb starter though.

Enjoyed Ghost in the Shell myself, even the remakes/reboots that came later didn't lose their original touch to me. Still great.

Never understood the Evangelion hype. Akira was only slightly above mid-tier for me as well.

 

[Gabriel.C.Negus]

Sounds interesting, will give it a go. Thanks for the suggestions!
I actually watched Cowboy Bebop on Netflix a while ago and… I’ll be honest, it didn’t quite hit for me.
Maybe the live-action version wasn’t the best introduction, could be I need to try the original anime instead.

 

[Deleted member 206441]

"Noein: To Your Other Self" is a great time paradox-y anime.

 

[sbdrag]

This is kind of a spoiler for the show/VN that has done this before in a different way than stated here, but I'm not going to tell you specifically who:

Spoiler: Show Name

Fate Stay/Night

Also, you know,

Spoiler: Film in Franchise

Men in Black 3

, that time loop film starring Ryan Reynolds, and that other time loop film with Bruce Willis (I think?), uh... the Erased anime had an interesting take on time travel and it effecting the future... yeah, there are a good amount of examples of "person time traveling effects their past self into becoming their future self" out there, so it's def doable

 

[Daitengu]

I don't believe in the hypothetical existence of time travel. Rather I think the duo are like the asteroid in the Panspermia theory. Just instead of planet to planet life spreading, it's universe to universe life spreading. Their "existing selves from the past" are just their ancestor, and their looks/skills/etc are just atavistic regression. Which will confuse them to all heck as time travel is a very poplar theory compared to relatively obscure atavism and some actions, thoughts, and feelings being determined genetically.

What the civilization becomes is a tree, while the duos are rare seeds. They carry the genes of the tree, but aren't a tree themselves.

That's my twist to the story.

 

[Gabriel.C.Negus]

Appreciate the input, both of you!
Daitengu, that’s a wild angle, universe-hopping ancestry instead of time travel. Honestly, kind of love the chaos in that.

And sbdrag, yeah, those time-loop setups where the future self shapes the past version into becoming them? That’s pretty much the heartbeat of what I’m exploring. Keeping it weird, but with a thread you can follow.

 

[Gray_Mann]

Sounds interesting, will give it a go. Thanks for the suggestions!
I actually watched Cowboy Bebop on Netflix a while ago and… I’ll be honest, it didn’t quite hit for me.
Maybe the live-action version wasn’t the best introduction, could be I need to try the original anime instead.

Wait what? Why the hell would you watch the Live Action? That was an abomination!!! Nobody was casted correctly!! None of the actors got the character personalities correctly. It was just awful.

Just....why?

The anime man!!! The anime!! Watch the anime!!

The Live action was the retarded crack-baby of the anime. Best tossed into the nearest dumpster or just outright forgotten and ignored

 

[Gabriel.C.Negus]

Wait what? Why the hell would you watch the Live Action? That was an abomination!!! Nobody was casted correctly!! None of the actors got the character personalities correctly. It was just awful.

Just....why?

The anime man!!! The anime!! Watch the anime!!

The Live action was the retarded crack-baby of the anime. Best tossed into the nearest dumpster or just outright forgotten and ignored

Yeah, at the time I didn't know about it as Anime, never heard of it until Netflix. It was mediocre to say the least. I will check the anime version though.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Yeah, at the time I didn't know about it as Anime, never heard of it until Netflix. It was mediocre to say the least. I will check the anime version though.

My wife actually tracked down the anime and made me watch it with her after seeing the live action version - it is worth watching the live action one first and THEN seeing it done right; the other way around just leads to frustration.