Magic Items That Don't Make Sense - no.2

I really enjoyed writing my post on why invisibility cloaks don't make sense, so I decided to do another, and ruin a whole load of other sci fi for people.

Today I'm going to be talking about time travel.

The idea that you can be taken forward or backwards in time (normally to change something) is, to me, completely absurd. First of all, there is no such thing as being stationary in time. We are always moving forward, the clock is constantly ticking, so by going forward in time, we are only speeding up the process, and we cannot go back to the present, because the present has changed and moved on.

Second of all, I want to point out the fatal flaw made by all time travel plots in any movie, television show or book ever made. When a person travels through time to change something and succeed in doing so, that thing has been changed when they return to the present, meaning that they had no reason to go back in time and change it in the first place. And if they had no reason to go back in time to change it, they never would've gone back in time to change it, so it never would've been changed! I don't know if that makes any sense, so let me give you an example. If a person (let's call them Joe) were to go back in time to stop himself breaking up with someone else (let's call them Jane), when Joe returns to the present, he never would've broken up with Jane, so would never have needed to go back in time to stop himself from doing it. And so, when Joe doesn't go back in time (because he has no need to) he never stops himself, and so he  breaks up with Jane regardless.

And lastly, what is with all the different methods of time travel? Science fiction really needs to get its act together and agree on one set method of time travel (preferably one that makes sense) so we don't all keep getting confused by the Time Turners in Harry Potter and the magical portals in Once Upon A Time and the time machine from Time Machine and the Tardis from Doctor Who. I mean seriously, get it together, because I can't keep up with all this!

I hope you enjoyed this, because I certainly enjoy picking apart the foundations of science fiction and the things that people love - it's great fun! However, I really think that all I've done is once again prove how much time I have in my life!

Let me know if there are any magical items that you don't think make sense and why, because I'd like to make a little series out of these!

See you soon!