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Time loops in stories are a lot of fun, they can be really complicated and interesting. Groundhog day is the most famous version of this trope. Banes tells me it's a “trope codifier”. In a time loop story characters are caught reliving the same events over and over with the main character being the only one who's really aware of it, Sometimes the loop happens only once or a couple of times, or many, many times as in Groundhog Day and Palm Springs. We chat about some of the different time loop stories, their characteristics and why we like them.
We also talk about the instance where you actually experience this in reality: re-watching and re-reading books, movies, TV shows etc. It's like WE are the main, aware character and the loop is the movie or the book. We get something different out of them each time, just like Bill Murray's character in Groundhog day. Videogames give us even more of a time loop experience, allowing us to follow different threads and make different choices to achieve different outcomes at the completion of the game. If you “die” you also “re-live” the game over and over till you manage to complete it in the way you want! Tantz brings up the example of the game Undertale that specifically recognises and draws attention to this.
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Akacya the Bounty Hunter: Reverential awesomeness. Buzzing distorted beat pacing out the time and encouraging you to move, a slow, heavy, swaying, stomping dance. A wobbling, vibrating guitar weaves through and ties it all up like a bright satin ribbon around a present, topping the track off with a beautiful display of shibari.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Newspost on timeloops - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/28/when-i-come-around/
Featured comic:
Phantasos - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/26/featured-comic-phantasos/
Featured music:
Akacya the Bounty Hunter - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Akacya_The_Bounty_Hunter/, by Shinka, rated M.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
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QUACKCAST 529 - Time loops!
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, May 4, 2021
Akacya the Bounty Hunter,
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Phantasos,
QUACKCAST 529,
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Time loops!,
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cresc at 4:31PM, May 7, 2021
There was a really good time loop episode of The Librarians. The show uses the trope to give the character Ezekial a lot of character development. It's revealed that he's been through hundreds of loops and that the rest of the cast all died at some point. He's been trying to get everyone out safely, even repeatedly getting burned and injured. In the end we see the best version of Ezekial. Who then disappears once he solves the loop. We remember Ezekial Omega, but the characters remain with the selfish immature Ezekial Alpha.
dpat57 at 10:27AM, May 7, 2021
Too late now, but... I was flicking through channels and there it is, The Time Tunnel, series 1 episode 1, the blurb: "Tony Newman and Doug Philips, who are working on the government's time tunnel project, find themselves on board the Titanic the day before she hits an iceberg." Of all the places in all the time periods, dammit. Tony, the only passenger aboard wearing a turtle neck, thus blending in totally, just comes right out and tells ship's captain Michael Rennie he's from the future, part of a time displacement experiment. Yep that's always going to work, a sound strategy, Tony.
Ozoneocean at 6:11PM, May 4, 2021
I think I've seen erased! Might be due for another watch.
usedbooks at 9:53AM, May 4, 2021
Erased is one of the best anime series I have ever seen, highly recommended. It has some time stuff in it as a plot device, although not the main focus (unlike Stein;sGate, which is also excellent, imo). It's basically a murder mystery but the protagonist sets out to not only solve but prevent the crime. And the resolution is one of the best and most satisfying I've seen. Because the "time travel" is out of the character's control, it doesn't risk being the boring solve-all, that time travel stories suffer from.
Ozoneocean at 3:02AM, May 4, 2021
@dpat57 Hahah, Run Lola Run is a classic! @MOrgan True! life repeats XD But it seems to me like the opposite of a loop: I stay the same and everything else changes!
MOrgan at 1:55AM, May 4, 2021
I know this. I wake up hoping to get something drawn. Things happen. I don't get anything drawn. Go to bed, wake up, same thing. ;-)
dpat57 at 12:25AM, May 4, 2021
+1 for Run Lola Run. Time travel plots can feel overused sometimes and tend to turn me off as a reader, but now and again it's done just right, as the classics prove. *blinks, opens browser for the first time today, visits the Duck, reads article, fills in blank comment field again*