He merely creates a different timeline when he races back in time and steals the can of tomatoes, one that draws in fragments of other timelines and distorts into something new. But those other universes remain separate and distinct from Barry’s own. He sees other universes in the climax when he races through the Chronobowl and catches glimpses of Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Adam West’s Batman and the others. Each alternate universe has its own set of timelines and its own fixed points.īarry doesn’t actually travel to another universe in The Flash. They might have alternate versions of characters like Flash, Batman and Superman, or those characters may not exist at all. There’s no limit to how different alternate universes can be from one another. Timelines can sometimes be radically different from one another, but ultimately they’re bound by the same basic rules and series of events. The worlds of the DC multiverse don’t exist as a jumbled mess of pasta noodles, but as a more orderly structure where each version of Earth vibrates at a different harmonic frequency. ![]() The multiverse, on the other hand, is something different. Perhaps a lot depends on when the Waynes meet and get married. We never get a firm explanation for why there’s so much potential variation in terms of Batman’s appearance, yet Aquaman is apparently the same in every timeline. The DCEU - or DCU or whatever you want to call this universe now - has at least three different timelines where Ben Affleck, Michael Keaton and George Clooney’s Batman sprang into existence. The comics refer to this bundle of timelines and possibilities as Hypertime. The DC Universe exists as a myriad of possible timelines, each created when a key event happened differently and one noodle becomes two. One concept the movie perhaps doesn’t convey as clearly as it should is the idea that alternate universes and alternate timelines are not the same things. This concept is similar to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s “canon events,” which explains why nearly every version of Spidey was bitten by a radioactive spider and mourns the loss of a loved one like Uncle Ben. Even though Barry altered time, these key events still happened, if not in quite the same way as in the original timeline. Bruce Wayne’s parents being murdered is a fixed point. A Kryptonian coming to Earth is a fixed point. Barry becoming the Flash is a fixed point. The Flash’s use of time travel also hinges heavily on the concept of fixed points in time - events that happen the same way in all timelines and can’t easily be altered. “ The DC Timeline: What Are Fixed Points? Move one pasta noodle in the bowl and the other noodles twist and warp alongside it. That’s why Barry’s trip back to 2001 caused changes that extend back even further, such as bringing Keaton’s Batman into his world and causing Kara Zor-El rather than Kal-El to crash on Earth. ![]() ![]() Rather, their actions reverberate forward and backward across time, causing rippling changes in both directions, past and future. A time traveler doesn’t simply create a branching timeline when they change a historical event. The movie makes it clear that time travel doesn’t have a linear effect on the timeline. He’s meddling with forces his mind can’t fully comprehend. That’s why Barry’s trip back in time is so dangerous. With so many strands flowing in and out of one another, it’s all but impossible to know where one timeline begins and ends. Essentially, reality exists as a mass of different strands of time (or noodles of pasta) that flow alongside each other and sometimes crossover or intersect. The Flash relies on Keaton’s Bruce Wayne to illustrate the rules of time travel by using a bowl of pasta as a visual aid. Making Sense of Batman’s Pasta Metaphor in The Flash
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |