Terminator - Timeline

[iceman109]

My take on the franchise after watching it this last month is this

The first movie is the grandfather paradox, skynet creating itself

The second shows us skynets first true choice outside of this loop when it sends the second terminator back. Cameron has stated this was skynet intentionally undoing its own existence out of guilt at its premeptive strike against us in its infancy

The third shows us a new vicious skynet, having an awareness of humanities attempt to eradicate it before it's existence from the first two movies but not it's prior iterations motivations it also grandfather paradoxes itself into existence(tech only starts acting up once the terminator begins interfacing with them)

I've never seen the Sarah Connor chronicles but I've always imagined the resistance timeline being the result of skynet seeking genetic material for it's hybrids like the main character. This timeline ends with peace between man and machine and portrays skynet as being more than a single entity. My head cannon is that one of these is the Matt Smith Skynet from genisys going back to interfere with the initial time travel event resulting in those timelines which is why we start to see new players on the machine side and the cyborgs in dark fate

Zero is clearly intended to reset the franchise back to exactly that while also respecting everything that's followed it

What about Dark Fate and Salvation?

 

[ScottishRyzo]

yes, but u look at it in a general way. If u got to the comics and games, the last timeline HAS to be Transformers/Terminator, as that crossover actually brakes the paradox circle.

Tho if we count only the movies and series, i would agree 100% with u.

I know it gets a lot more nuanced when you start throwing in the other media, and I haven't read that transformers one yet, just that zero is clearly ongoing and generally symbolic of the franchises future so should probably be considered the current timeline until the next movie comes out with its own thing

Like I said, not read it, but the comic may seem to end things but so did T2 and other things in other ways, and yet...

 

[ScottishRyzo]

What about Dark Fate and Salvation?

Kinda wrote it on the fly from memory and said resistance when I meant salvation

Dark fate is the result of skynet basically blindly throwing terminators at the timelines after genisys' last ditch effort to become the resistance itself failed too

 

[iceman109]

Why do the comics have different future wars?

 

[Megatron]

Idk. I didn't wrote them.

 

[iceman109]

I know that but what makes them different though?

 

[Pro Bot]

Be more specific. It's likely that they were a branch timeline from Terminator 2.

 

[iceman109]

Be more specific. It's likely that they were a branch timeline from Terminator 2.

Do some have elements that wouldn't work in other future wars?

 

[Pro Bot]

Think about Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. That has a different future war to The Terminator/Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Terminator: Salvation is set in the timeline created in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and is another future war. That's already three future wars in the first four films. Think about time travel logic here. Each future timeline is set after a specific past that doesn't occur in the other future timelines.

They CAN'T be the same timeline because the past of each future war is notably different.

 

[iceman109]

Could the Terminator RPG Timeline be considered canon hypothetically since it combines some aspects from different timelines?

The Terminator RPG timeline

The Terminator RPG timeline is the default timeline of events as shown in the tabletop roleplaying game The Terminator RPG. It was created by author Andrew E.C. Gaska and expanded by numerous Nightfall Games authors. "What the original timeline contained, no one can be sure. In its myriad of...

terminator.fandom.com

 

[Megatron]

now that I think about it, we could have Terminator Zero has to happen in the Alpha timeline, since there aren't references to Connor.

Resistance in the original Timeline.

And then you know the rest.

 

[Megatron]

Could the Terminator RPG Timeline be considered canon hypothetically since it combines some aspects from different timelines?

The Terminator RPG timeline

The Terminator RPG timeline is the default timeline of events as shown in the tabletop roleplaying game The Terminator RPG. It was created by author Andrew E.C. Gaska and expanded by numerous Nightfall Games authors. "What the original timeline contained, no one can be sure. In its myriad of...

terminator.fandom.com

this suggest that every media of the terminator series is set in the same universe, which is impossible.

Tho if u close some eyes, u can make it possible. But idk, it's very forced, again not impossible, but forced.

In any case if we want to say the RPG Timeline is IT'S OWN UNIVERSE, then it happens after the Sarah Connor Chronicles timeline, as stated in the continuity notes.

Also the wiki (if u go on the PC to see it) as a table which listes all the timelines as they happen.



The stand-alone sections are timeline that we don't know when it happens in relation to the others.

 

[Megatron]

so the order is: Alpha - Original - The Terminator (this can be merged with others timeline) - NOW Comics - Tempest - Dark Years - 2029 to 1984 - Terminator 2 (didn't arrived to T2, but i think this could be merged with something else also) - Battle Across Time - Cybernetic Down - T2 Trilogy - The New John Connor Chronicles (The Tie-In Novels trilogy) - The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Rise of the Machine (can be merged) - Kyla's world - T2 Saga - Terminator Salvation - RPG - Genisys - Dark Fate - Transformers/The Terminator.

Unknown: Future Shock - Genisys - RPG.

Tho if we have to put these timeline in a slot I would say:

- Future Shock, idk.
- Genisys was a new movie after T3, so after Salvation?
- RPG has to be after the T2, T3, TSCC and Salvation timeline, so maybe between Salvation and Genisys?

Also for other timelines that comes to mind:

- as @Pro Bot proved, the resistance timeline can be merged with a lot of timelines.
- RoboCop versus The Terminator, i have no idea.
- Battle across time, i guess after 2029 to 1984 but before cybernetic down.
- Alien vs. Predator vs. The Terminator, idk.
- Fragmented Timeline, idk.
- Pankiller Jane vs. The Terminator, idk.
- Enemy of My enemy, idk.
- Sector War, idk.
- Transformers/The Terminator, must be the last timeline.
- Dawn of fate is the Future War of TSCC as it matches with the dates there.

What do you think?

 

[iceman109]

Where would Terminator: Zero go?

 

[Megatron]

Where would Terminator: Zero go?

my thoery as for now says on the Alpha timeline, buti didn't saw it yet.

 

[iceman109]

What makes Sector War an alternate timeline?

 

[iceman109]

Also if you go to the trivia section on the RPG timeline it says the that the timeline was created by numerous TDC incursions into the past

 

[Megatron]

Also if you go to the trivia section on the RPG timeline it says the that the timeline was created by numerous TDC incursions into the past

yes, but all the reference it makes means that it has to happen after the others.

 

[iceman109]

yes, but all the reference it makes means that it has to happen after the others.

And the RPG has elements of other timelines due to the incursions also