Some ideas are:

  • You branch off into another timeline and your actions make no difference to the previous timeline
  • You’ve already taken said actions but just didn’t know about it so nothing changes
  • Actions taken can have an effect (so you could suddenly erase yourself if you killed your parents)
  • Only “nexus” or fixed events really matter, the timeline will sort itself out for minor changes
  • something else entirely
  • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    8 days ago

    You’ve already taken said actions but just didn’t know about it so nothing changes

    12 Monkeys did this one perfectly.

    You can’t change things because if you undid the thing, then there wouldn’t be a reason to undo the thing. If you go back in time, you are just going to do what you already did because that is in the past.