Welcome, our dearest spectators, to the Grand Arena once again. Today is the great day: the day of the Finale! Two brave fighters, the best of the best, will finally show us who of them is worthy of a title of Champion of the Arena, and the tournament will come to a close - until the next year at least.
But, before that, let us remember those who did not make it, those who gave their bloody due to Armok and who managed to entertain the public, no matter how far they made it in. Gilbert “Crazy Legs”, the toad bard giving us the Ballad of the Pits. Adrinna Catastor, the dimension travelling fighter for a new home. Anyola the Obscured, Grekk the Deranged, Shendau Goldpeak, Urist McGladiator. They and more brave fighters have given their lives today for the glory and for the public. And so let it be known that their sacrifice will not be forgotten, and they live still in the Arena through the blood they have spilled on the cold floor of the Arena.
But enough about those who were lost, for we have our two finalists, the most glorious of them all!
The Finale: City Guard NPC vs. Molurus And so, let us introduce the two mighty warriors who have made it this far, in spite of all the odds and to the expectations of few. In the upper corner, standing proudly, his pike rising up into the sky like a mighty oak, his expression unwavering as steel, the hero of the common folk, the Relatable One, the slayer of favorites and an all-around great guy… BOB, the City Guard NPC (managed by
u/CalamarRojo)! A man seemingly born into his profession, he might not have a grand goal in mind; he might not have backstory which could be written ballads about; he might not have a quirky character; but what he does have is ultimate relatability and undoubtable skill in weaponry, which he has proven time and again.
In his very first round, he defeated a murderous environmentalist, a penguin who could have become the next Paul, Flipper Gut-Ripper, through the strength of his armour and his indomitable will alone. The next round, he has made cheese out of Ipetynalzo Toothbreaker without breaking a sweat. But these achievements pale in comparison to what he managed to do next.
The third round had him face off against Zip Zop, a goblin who was thought unbreakable due to her spectacular performance in her first two rounds: winning with a WOODEN dagger against Mephisopheles the Foul Blendec, and then outwrestling a troll - Van the Dungeon Master, to be precise! Still, her luck has run out against the staunch Guard, allowing him to move to the next opponent.
Kosak Stormclaw, the Polar Bear Man Adventurer who was one step away from becoming a legend, from his help in defending the Fortress of Stonegleam from yeti invasion. Known best as the slayer of Shendau Goldpeak, this polar bear man as well could not hold against Bob in the quarter-finals.
And, at last, the most surprising victory of all: one against Anyola the Obscured, the kinslayer in hiding, who seemingly was on the track to finally reconciling with her family. Her skills, proven by her one-hit kill of Beul the Executioner in the Quarter-finale, have earned her many followers, and some rumours even started that she was merely holding back and that she could beat Paul himself. But she too was felled by the City Guard’s pike, shocking many.
Now, he stands truly ready for the Quarter-finale: new finely-made steel armour glinting in the sun, pike raised high up to the sky. Bob seems more confident than ever before, and even his pose, while still completely compliant with one of the common guard, has been filled with something more than boredom of one. It has been filled with determination and strength, and soon, the pike is pointed at his opponent, and the confident smirk appears on his face. Today, we will find out whether this human will become our first champion of the Civilized Races. His job will not be easy, because…
His opponent is standing no less stalwartly, shining in the summer sun like a glorious star himself. His scales and his steel armour blending in a great bling, almost reflecting the warm that is filling the arena. This is a no-less beloved champion of the reptilekind with a grand purpose… Molurus, the Python Man (managed by
u/Rowsdower11)! The crusader of the Global Warming, he has deduced that the increased temperature of the world is going to help every cold-blooded creature in the world; as such, he has decided to participate in the Great Tournament to gather funds to start a charity promoting the climate change. Whatever you think of his policies, one thing cannot be denied: he is a force to be reckoned with.
He has cut a bloody swath through Crowemurphy the game developer and Little Tooth the Troll with his scimitar, not facing much resistance from either of them. Then he killed an interdimensional traveler, Lucius Postimus Corvus, the slayer of Gilbert “Crazy Legs” the Toadman Bard and Frostquake the Polar Bear Man, in a quick and efficient display of swordsmanship.
After that, he continued onto the Quarter-Finals, where he faced a fan favorite, a dwarven elf by the name of Dak Vagush, the inheritor of the dwarven hopes and avenger of Urist McGladiator. The brave woman stood her ground in a long and gruesome duel, but eventually had to give to her larger opponent, extinguishing the last hope of the dwarves to win this tournament.
And in the semi-finale he faced yet another fan favourite, She Intends To Stab You the Axolotl Woman. The cold-blooded killer in all senses, her abyssal eyes could send shivers down anyone’s spine, and her gruesome methods of dealing with her opponents, involving slowly bleeding them out, were surely entertaining for some of our more bloodthirsty patrons. Still, even though she had her adamantine dagger, the snakeman’s choice of ditching his armour for the fight against her proved a good decision, and he managed to survive the axolotl woman’s deadly assault.
And, surprisingly enough, he has dropped his faithful scimitar, instead opting for a set of armour. His only means of offense is now his own natural arsenal. He looks extremely confident, as the crowds of reptile men are cheering him up. His snake eyes are shining with determination and readiness. Today, his idea will finally get due funds for its realization… or will have to be delayed because of his death. Which will it be?Take your deepest breaths, bring out your merchandise, for in a few seconds…
The Horn Sounds! Combat Log;
Video The two fighters are moving towards each other slowly, carefully, calculation and anticipation in their eyes. There is little room for mistake, and it is all or nothing: either the eternal glory and achievement of their goals - or death and dust. Both fighters know this, and look at each other intently. Still, Molurus gives Bob a courteous hiss, and Bob nods his head back, as a sign of mutual respect. And then Molurus lunges, quick like a viper striking its prey.
But still, combat reflexes of the City Guard allow him to step away just in time, with Molurus flying right by him. The pike is quickly turned and strikes at the python man, tearing right through his leather robe and making a scratch on the arm. The hiss of the snakeman increases, and he jumps right at his opponent, making him fall over and directing his fist towards him - but the Guardsman manages to roll away just in time and jump right back on his feet with little difficulty, before sending his pike in his direction - the strike to be dodged by an agile body of a snakeman.The fighters enter a dance, pike and armours shining in the sun, neither opponent giving a single inch. The strikes are evaded as deftly as they are sent, and this is no small feat. The eyes sparkle with concentration and confidence, a small scratch not dissuading Molurus from his seemingly certain victory. With half the tribunes chanting Bob’s name - or moniker, and the other half cheering for Molurus - many hissing even despite not being reptiles - the atmosphere gives off a tensity only the Finale can provide.
Soon, another wild fist is thrown in the air, whizzing past the pike already breaking through to stab at Molurus’ arm, leaving a serious wound on the snakeman’s bicep! Still, the snakeman does not seem too unfazed by this, quickly grabbing the pike and once again moving in, pushing the Guardsman over with his shoulder! He is quickly pushed away when he tries to impale his fangs on Bob, and the fighters move a few steps back once again.
Still, this time Molurus manages to follow up on the momentum, as his fist flies into the guard/s armored leg - not dealing too much damage. Then another hook follows, to the other leg, and Molurus is pushed away by the shaft of the pike. City Guard’s eyes start to glow with fury, and he goes on the offensive once again. A few stabs whizz past the snakeman’s scales, and he does knock over Bob the third, then the fourth time! Bob’s fans become more and more anxious, calling for their favourite to get himself together.
And it does not take him long to do so, for, from the ground, he stabs right in Molurus’ right arm, and, after a few attempts by Molurus to get back at his rival, another stab follows, managing to hit the same spot, and a bone-chipping sound is heard loudly. For the first time, some resemblance of fear appears in the pained eyes of the python man - but it is extremely brief, and he immediately lashes out at Bob’s arm, the fangs sliding off the steel.The City Guard has the advantage, and he understands it, easily pressing his advantage by making two more holes in the snakeman’s unprotected arm, seemingly trying to mangle it far beyond any recognition. And, in a desperate move, Molurus once again pushes his opponent to the ground, his teeth now trying to bite through his opponent’s leg - and failing yet again. Once more, City Guard rses up, plunging his pike right into his opponent’s hand. Quickly retrieving his pike from his opponent’s hand, Bob moves out of the grappling distance, and braces his pike yet again.
After evading a few more stabs from the pike of the City Guard, the bleeding snakeman quickly takes a look around him, seeing as the hopes of the reptile men around the arena seem to dampen, their faces in desperation. He takes a look at the shining sun, feels the warmth upon his scales, and turns his gaze back to the City Guard, determination renewed in his eyes. He quickly charges once more, and starts to bite the City Guard - first in his hand, trying to get through the gaps in the gauntlets, before biting right on his opponent’s face and starting to shake his around by his head!The City Guard starts to bleed from his mouth, and the snakeman bites off his ear, then impales his teeth through the joints on the gauntlet, sinking them deep into his opponent’s forearm. He starts shaking the human around by his arm, and a pained scream erupts from his opponent’s mouth. As the bleeding intensifies, he bites through the other arm, shaking it around as well, and the trusty pike is dropped from Bob’s hands!
Still, the heat of battle has taken its toll on both fighters, and they both tumble to ground, where Molurus continues biting at his opponent, still trying to kick his opponent off him. Still, soon enough a hand is ripped right off from the rest of his body. This, combined with the continued biting, about does it for the City Guard. With his last breath, he mutters one thing: “Someone… help… please...”
With that, brave guardsman Bob’s head drops on the ground, and Molurus slowly, exhaustedly, rises up to standing, roaring ovations of the public. The python man looks at his warm-blooded opponent, giving him a solemn, respectful bow. After that, he manages to break out a smile, and bathes in the sun and the cheers of the spectators. He has done it.
Congratulations, Molurus! You have prevailed in the tournament despite everything, and you are the winner of the Fifth Gladiator Tournament!
But wait a moment… -----
The crowds shake as the gates are knocked on heavily. A deep, wrathful roar resounds through the tense air of the Arena. The people start to whisper among themselves, and some even start to leave in a hurry. And soon enough, the door opens, revealing a terrifying figure of a harp seal man, dressed in full adamantine armour, a blue hood over his head. He raises his morningstar far up in the air and smirks malevolently. He cannot be mistaken for anyone. Paul the Pulverizer is here to defend his title.
And so, the Arena staff quickly patches up Molurus for the newest fight, as Paul stretches and swings the morningstar around, warming his muscles. The two stare off for a long time, hatred soaring through their eyes, and the two of them square off in the Arena again. Another match is in order…
The Title Match: Molurus vs. Paul the Pulverizer
The contender for the title has already been introduced, so let us reintroduce the current holder of the title of the Champion of the Arena - though everyone knows him already. Paul the Pulverizer (managed by
u/LegalPusher), the infamous environmentalist crusader, has been driven away from his home by the Global Warming and has departed on a quest to cull the world in order to slow it down the previous year; and in the name of the ice caps everywhere, he has murdered his way through many.
First, it was an unnoticeable kobold, Sneekris. Then, in a fit of brutal strength, he has killed Shakkan D’armignan with his own teeth after being disarmed of his morningstar. After that, he brutalized one of the fan favourites of the Tournament, Glovely Graypelt the bravest of opossum women. In the quarter-finals he destroyed lovable Kisat Dur Panda. In the semi-finals, Cowlvin the Cowvalier, a minotaur with a starving family, fell to his vicious morningstar. And finally, in the Finale he defeated the tough guy batman En Yaw Ecurb, before wrestling the title away from Notorious Breakfast and commencing the Massacre of the Arena. But do not worry, the Arena Officials have ensured that there will be no second one even if the sealman wins.
Weirdly enough, a few of the previous tournament’s fans have turned out, flying the ‘Seal the Deal’ banners from the previous year. Paul’s expression is one of unrivalled confidence - after all, in the eyes of the many he has become something akin to a demigod of slaughter. How could Molurus possibly stand up to such a force of nature?..
Molurus himself for a moment seems a bit insecure, but his commitment to his cause soon overpowers whatever dread his heart holds. This harp seal man is the antithesis to all he stands for. It is either his awful vision of a cold hellish world, or the hot paradise. He will fight for his dream, whatever the cost. He straightens up, looking at Paul and hissing through his teeth.
One thing is absolutely certain. We are in for one hell of a title match.
The Horn Sounds once again! Combat Log;
Video Paul moves straight to his opponent, as quickly as a harp seal man can, his posture exerting supreme assurance. After all, he has defeated all his opponent without much struggle, and this puny, disgusting snakeman will be an easy pulverizing target. In a few moments, Molurus attempts to lash out at his opponent, but his head is slapped away, and the deadly morningstar rams itself into the snakeman’s hand, the force tearing the scale on the snakeman. Still, the response from Molurus comes immediately, as he punches his opponent’s arm, the force enough to slightly tear the skin higher up the seal man’s arm. Slight confusion briefly appears on the seal man’s face, before he decides to charge at the snakeman, and the two of them tangle and fall to the ground together.
Molurus manages to push his opponent down, and stand up before him, but the grounded harp seal man manages to drive his morningstar into the python man’s hand. In response, another punch follows, striking Paul’s arm, though most of the force is dissipated by the armour.
Soon after, Molurus manages to grab Paul, in hopes of making him an easy target for his fist - but the head moves away just in time, and Molurus is forced to release his opponent. He quickly manages to get behind the seal man and punch him in his flipper - once again, without significant consequences, and Paul retaliates by bashing his opponent’s tail. Then, a punch to the seal man’s arm is met by a morningstar flying right into the snakeman’s mouth, pushing him quite a bit back! Molurus spits some blood on the floor of the arena, before getting back to the fight,
The two fighters are quick to get back at fighting, the glint of the sun reflecting from the python man’s armor contrasting with the blue adamantine like flame and ice. A wild lunge from Molurus - and he is bashed in his tail once again. The follow-up, however, is evaded quite deftly by the snakeman, and he tries to sink his teeth into his opponent’s flipper - but the fangs slide off the armour yet again. Molurus continues his assault, and two out of many punches land, failing to cause significant damage yet again - before his jaw finally grabs the sealman’s head!Just as with the Guard, he manages to shake Paul around by the mouth for a bit, before he is thrown off by a morningstar’s jab in the gut. Blood starts to pour from Paul’s mouth, giving him a decidedly sinister look, as the duel continues on. And yet, the sight of blood covering Paul is a sign that even in all his armoured and brutal glory, he is not immortal. The scared fans start to perk up just a bit…
Molurus continues punching his opponent, with predictable results, and some of the public simply starts to shout for Molurus to “bite the hell out of that bastard”, and soon enough Molurus knocks his opponent’s teeth out and uses the distraction to bite the sealman’s finger! Even the two morningstar strikes, with the spikes of the weapon stuck in snakeman's flesh after the second one, do not prevent the snakeman from viciously ripping the finger off!Another bite to the head quickly follows, and once again shakes the seal man around to the best of his ability, before Paul again takes them both down to the ground. Molurus once again rises up over his opponent - but not before receiving a morningstar strike to the head. he delivers three punches to his opponent, but the morningstar to the tails throws him a bit back, allowing Paul to get back to his feet.And right afterwards, snakeman’s fangs sink into Paul’s secondary arm, and Molurus shakes it around with an audible sound of tearing flesh. Afterwards, he delivers a left hook to the sealman’s head, his head slightly turning, and he attempts to deliver another strike to the arm, but the force is deflected by the adamantine. The retaliation is quick, and the offending hand is quickly proven the target of the morningstar. Still, the snakeman quickly grabs the sealman’s gauntlet and starts punching his opponent again and again.
But the battle has been going for long now, and the strain of tiredness finally gets to the fighters, who collapse on the floor, breathing heavily. As soon as Paul tries to get back up, the snake fangs slide across his flipper, force not enough to break through but enough to send the seal man back to the ground. With the shaft of the morningstar, Paul immediately knocks out one of the snakeman’s fangs! But this does not stop Molurus.
With both fighters too exhausted to evade attacks, the final test of toughness starts. The snakeman bites at his opponent, the armour deflecting less and less force from the desperate bites of the snakeman, as the morningstar bashes him time and again. Sooner or later, someone will have to give, and the crowds start to cheer more desperately for their chosen gladiators…
After a bit of this, Molurus plunges his teeth into the hand of the sealman, shaking it around again, before managing to get straight to the sealman’s throat! In a desperate attempt to throw the snakeman off before it’s too late, he drives the morningstar into his arm - but when Molurus starts to shake his opponent around, Paul finds his body quickly paralyzed, and the morningstar - the weapon of slaughter - drops to the ground! Molurus bites on his defenseless opponent’s head, shaking him around violently - and for the first time, the pain makes the dreaded, undefeatable Paul lose his consciousness.
Molurus continues to wrathfully shake around his opponent’s head, almost as if trying to drain every single drop of blood from Paul - or rip his head off. And he succeeds in the first part soon after. The crowds stand in shock, as they watch the seal man finally take his last breath… before erupting in cheer perhaps unheard in the Arena ever before. The Slaughterer is gone, and Molurus is the hero of the day. Bathing in all the attention and the rays of the sun once more, he gives the world a true, genuine, wide smile. Now, he will not be stopped in his goals of making the world embrace Global Warming. At least, until the next year comes.
Congratulations, Molurus! Despite all odds, all expectations, all fears, you have managed to defeat Paul, who once seemed absolutely invincible, just a year after he went up on his throne, and now you are officially the
Champion of the Arena! -----
And so concludes the Fifth Dwarf Fortress Gladiator Tournament, our dearest spectators. It has been a great honour having you all here, watching, cheering, booing, weeping. We really hope that all of you will come back to the next tournament, at this Crucible of Legends. The Arena will await you in a year. Farewell, and may Armok be with all of you.
u/ERR40 wins the betting, with good a margin!
-----
Written by
u/Black_Griffin23 Edited by
u/Morpheus_Darkwater Tournament run by
u/Morpheus_Darkwater submitted by I've seen this question asked several times in a few different ways:
- If it was so easy for Five to jump into the future, why didn't he just jump back?
- Why did Five get stuck in the Apocalypse so long - why didn't he figure it out sooner?
- How did Five end up in his 13 year old body? Why isn't he 58, or 29?
I have done Some Thinking. And some Reading. And then, Some More Thinking.
Here is what I came up with.
Why Five Didn't Jump Back Right Away, or, An Intro to Layman's Quantum Physics
Traveling forwards in time is much simpler than traveling backwards. To travel forwards in time, all you have to do is accelerate along your same time-space curve at greater speed.
Technically, we are all time travelers. It's just that most of us travel at the rate of one second = one second. 1:1. We all travel through time together at the same rate and don't think much of it.
Five can travel much, much faster than that. That's what his spatial jumps are. We can't see him, because he's moving faster than our eyes can register, but he's not apparating. Just sprinting.
Temporal jumping ahead of himself.
To travel backwards in time is much more difficult. This is due to the probabilities involved in causality. Imagine a game of pool - you shoot the cue ball at the pyramid and all the balls scatter across the table.
To undo that action - go back in time - you have to re-form the pyramid using the cue ball to gently hit each ball back into a pyramid formation without sinking any of them into a pocket.
This is infinitely more difficult than breaking the rack in the first place.
Anyone can break a rack; very few people would be able to put it back together.
Five realizing he's gone into the ice and never acorned.
Most current theories on time travel involve quantum physics and moving between what they call parallel universes (Many Worlds Theory). You're not having to reverse causality here; instead, you break down into quantum particle sized bits and travel through a wormhole connecting two different timelines.
That's what Reginald meant when he said
time travel is like "descending blindly into the depths of the freezing water and reappearing as an acorn." It's difficult and relies on the ability to calculate very complex probabilities.
From now on I will call a certain time "a dimension". It just makes it much easier to talk about.
Example: Instead of saying "
he went back to 1955" I will say "
he traveled to a dimension where it is 1955".
Processing img ly0fsc9056s21... Travel Through The Multiverse
In the multiverse theory, the universe is composed of many dimensions (remember: dimension = timeline). There is a dimension for all possible things that could happen. (There is one theory that says "many things can happen in the multiverse but not
everything", but let's ignore that for now).
So there is a dimension where you brushed your teeth this morning, and there is a dimension where you didn't.
Every decision "creates" a new dimension.
You can think of this as a single timeline that keeps on branching off into different lines over and over, infinitely; the sum of all things is like a massive, always growing tree. We only know what's on our individual leaf, but every single change before us is what created the trunk, the branch, the twig, etc, that our leaf is based on.
If we stay on our own twig, all the leaves will be pretty similar. But leaves on other branches could be so different than ours that we don't even recognize it as the same world. (Reginald's planet? Hmmmm.
Could be another planet. Could be...
Earth.)
Image credit/read more from an actual theoretical physicist: https://quantumfrontiers.com/2014/02/13/making-predictions-in-the-multiverse/ How Are We Sure Umbrella Academy Is Using Multiverse Theory?
Mainly because: they tell us. They make it pretty explicit three times. There's how Five describes getting back to his siblings' world; there's the dimensional branching that occurs in the plot between episodes 6 and 7; and then there's Five using probability fields to calculate whose death can potentially stop the Apocalypse.
Smarter than all of us.
A) Five tells everyone in the first episode exactly what he did to "get back". He says it right away, it's just that most of us were preoccupied with his rapid-fire dialogue and sandwich-making skills and missed it.
Vanya: Wait, how did you get back?
Five: In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time. Diego: That makes no sense.
Five: Well, it would if you were smarter.
Diego is Trying Very Hard to Understand. Klaus is...Klaus. Might be contemplating the mysteries of space time, might be seeing that hippo again.
We can all be that smart, it just takes a little explaining. So:
What Five has done to "get back" to his siblings is to jump from one leaf to another leaf of the multiverse tree.
He has to make a close jump, because otherwise he could end up in a very different dimension to the one he left- one where his siblings are not his siblings, or where half of them died in a car crash, or any number of an infinite range of possibilities.
Sure, he could go live in a dimension with no Apocalypse, but that world might not have anything he cares about in it. It might not even have
him.
This also explains why initially he couldn't just jump "back" - he had to master inter-dimensional travel using probability calculations and using his power to reduce himself to the size of quantum particles, then reassembling himself in his destination dimension.
A lot more complex than just making his existing body/consciousness Run Boy Run
really fast.
Dancing in the Moonlight of 2019 Dimension A.
B) We as viewers jump dimensions in the middle of the series and never go back to the original dimension. Episodes 1-6 take place in 2019 Dimension A. At the end of episode 6, The Day That Wasn't, we leave 2019 Dimension A with Five and travel to 2019 Dimension B for episodes 7-10.
We never go back to 2019 Dimension A but that doesn't mean 2019 Dimension A is gone. The Luther that danced with Allison is still out there in his Dimension doing Luther stuff; the Vanya that discovers the journal and the Klaus who talked to Dave still exist in that dimension. They're all out there, at least for the next few days pre-Apocalypse.
We just never check back in with them again.
In a way, the only "real" character we follow this entire show is Five. His consciousness is consistent across multiple dimensions (and so is ours as viewers). Everyone else we observe is a "new copy" after The Day That Wasn't.
In other words, both of those "Days" were. Nothing disappeared. We just stop observing Dimension A.
The tired look of a man who has to go through withdrawal like eight times in as many days. I think he might spend as much screen time in withdrawal on this show as on actual drugs.
At this point you might be asking: why doesn't Five just keep doing this infinitely to stop the Apocalypse? Live the same exact day over and over until he gets it right?
The answer is that to make such a precise jump between dimensions - a single day - Five has to use a Temps Commission briefcase. His organic ability to jump is difficult to control, and he is shown to need many years to calculate his first organic jump to 2019 Dimension A.
He only seems powerful enough to transfer his consciousness across long distances, and maybe a body across shorter ones (between leaves coming from the same stem, ie the dimension where he picked up his 13 year old body - a 2002 Dimension - to Dimension A in 2019. I'll explain that more below).
The briefcases are perfectly calibrated wormhole-openers that can transport a whole body or two, like Hazel & Cha-Cha, or Hazel & Agnes. This means the briefcases go between two set points across the multiverse: this is confirmed by Klaus' journey to 1968 Dimension and back again simply by opening it. The briefcases seem to be programmed at Temps Commission HQ.
We have to assume that Five is not capable of programming them himself, or he could have used the briefcase he stole after blowing up Temps HQ to live the same day over and over infinitely until he successfully stops the Apocalypse.
Not clear what he is fiddling with here. It's either nothing, or a supermassive black plothole.
So in episode 6, The Day That Wasn't, Five arrives in 2019 Dimension B from the Temps Commission HQ in 1955 Dimension. That's the only route that briefcase can take, presumably. He
can't go back to HQ to get a new briefcase because he blew most of them up with a grenade to buy himself some time, and also those people will kill him on sight now, so he's pretty screwed.
To Groundhog Day that single Day That Wasn't/Day That Was again, Five would need a briefcase set to jump from 2019 Dimension B to 2019 Dimension A, and he does not have one. Even if he did have one, the Temps Commission could rebuild their whole HQ, train another assassin army, and start sending them after him in waves. They are not bound by the constraints of a single timeline. Five is having a hell of a time out-running them, but he is.
Luther confused. C) We see Five calculating what he calls a "probability map" when he decides that Milton Green (and three other people) must (maybe) die to stop the Apocalypse. In quantum physics, everything is defined in probabilities, not in certainties.
If you only did standard public school science and math, you were likely taught that you can calculate the orbit of an electron around a nucleus and that the electron has a definite place in space as it moves around that orbit.
In quantum physics, this is known to be wrong. Electrons are both particles and waves, and they can't be observed at any one location, and they do not have an orbit.
Instead, you calculate their probable location using a probability cloud in order to define where the electron is more likely to be and less likely to be. The denser the cloud, the more likely the electron is in that region. Five is doing the same type of calculations when he is jumping through wormholes and trying to figure out how to stop world events from happening.
Five: Time is fickle, Luther. The slightest alteration in events can lead to massively different outcomes in the time continuum. The Butterfly Effect. So all I have to do is find the people with the greatest probability of impacting the timeline, whoever they may be, and kill them.
That would be: Robert Polko, Assistant Art Director; Nicole Lane, First Assistant Production Coordinator; Aleks Cameron, Assistant Art Director; Kathleen Vernice Chavez, Art Department Coordinator; Gary Hampton, Production Assistant. I didn't find a Milton Green. I'm not surprised at all this is an Easter egg. I AM surprised Gary Hampton, lowly PA, made the cut. Probably someone's nephew.
Five is running math on probabilities, not certainties. In other words, he lives in a world where there are no certainties. This informs his perspective on the ethics of killing. If you only murder one of an infinite number of versions of a person, did you really kill them? Or did you just kill "part" of them? And if it stops the Apocalypse, isn't it worth it? He gets very frustrated when Luther won't let him just kill four people. To Luther, who is bound in one dimension, this is ethically wrong.
Luther thinks in black and white, and he needs certainties:
this man is a terrorist with bad intentions, he needs to be stopped. Five exists multi-dimensionally, and is constantly aggravated by his siblings' inability to grasp that fact.
It's one of the reasons Five seems to be so detached from his siblings. These are just one version of many he has potential access to. Ironically, Luther is able to leverage Five's
completely irrational love for Dolores in order to prevent him from killing Milton Green and the others.
Remember,
Dolores is in reality just as replaceable as a Milton, or a Luther - Five could hop to another dimension and find another Dolores. Even falling out the window in this dimension would only probably dent her up a bit.
Luther's plan has all the nuance of a caveman:
You kill people? I break thing you love.
That look of relief on his face tho.
But, however inelegant, this is a successful emotional argument - Five can't bear to see his love dropped out a window, even if she is one of an infinite number of loves.
He can't stomach seeing
this one suffer pain at all - and so Luther manipulates the much smarter Five into doing what he wants.
Who's the genius now?
It's still not Luther. Why Five Ended Up 13, And Not 58, And Not 29
A) He can't be 58 because he couldn't bring his body through the wormhole. As he said, he had to make his consciousness very small to fit through a wormhole in the fabric of space-time. His 58 year old body was always going to stay in the 1963 Dimension where JFK was being assassinated.
I'm not sure if his dead or comatose body would be lying there with no consciousness in it, or if it was destroyed by whatever he does to jump. I think the former is more accurate, which is...ew.
Why can't he bring his body? We could hypothesize that it would take a lot more energy to get his 58 year old body from 1968 Dimension to 2019 Dimension A than it would to just send his consciousness there.
The wormhole would have to be an order of magnitude larger to fit a body through, and that would take a lot of energy. We can assume Five can't generate that much energy - or at least, not yet.
Klaus totally undermining my theory with that goddamn fire extinguisher. Apparently a fire extinguisher is a more accomplished interdimensional traveler than Five. It certainly managed to reassemble itself. Although I guess it could have ended up as a younger version of itself. Who among us would know?
B) He can't be 29 because in order to arrive in a dimension close enough to the one he left to feel like home, he has to jump into a dimension where he ran away at 13 and never became 29. He doesn't
have a 29 year old body because it doesn't exist in 2019 Dimension A, or in any adjacent/recognizable-to-him dimension.
In my mind, he actually made two jumps to get from 1963 Dimension to 2019 Dimension A. First, he broke down his consciousness into quantum particles so he could make the big jump from 1968 Dimension to a 2002 Dimension to get the body (very difficult), then he runs along that same 2002 Dimension branch forwards, until he's in 2019 Dimension A (less difficult). (And yes, this means he displaced/killed some version of his 13 year old self's consciousness in order to occupy that body.)
The CGI supports this: Five is 58, then he is 13. He doesn't rewind from 58 to 48 to 38 to 28 to 13.
This show would have been over episode 1 if Klaus had better aim. BONK.
Why didn't he just go to a 2019 Dimension where he was 29? To pick up a 29 year old body for his quantum state consciousness, he would have had to hop to
a very different dimension - a different branch of the tree - where he never left in 2002 and instead grew up with his siblings into being 29, and therefore who even knows if there's an Apocalypse to stop.
He wants to be in a timeline where he disappeared and people missed him and all that stuff - otherwise it wouldn't mean anything to him, it would be these completely other people living different lives and having different memories of him. It's also possible he was incapable of calculating the sheer amount of probabilities to travel there safely - maybe it's just way too hard mathematically to jump between branches and not just twigs.
I feel like in the back of his mind, Five was aware of this. He says "Dolores kept saying the equations were off - bet she's laughing now." Since Dolores is a manifestation of his own mind, we can assume that
Five was subconsciously aware he was going to end up in the "wrong" body. He probably knew he wouldn't be 58 but maybe thought he was going to pick up his 29 year old body, not his 13 year old one.
Five at 29? Season Two Implications
And there you have it, my best take on the rules for time travel that govern Umbrella Academy. What does this mean for the next season? Well, it appears at the end of episode 10 that Five has the ability to temporal jump himself and his 6 siblings.
How can this be, when he could barely jump himself anywhere before? I don't know, I'm guessing Harry Potter rules apply ("It's the power of love!").
Or maybe he always could, but just never attempted it. That's certainly what it sounds like when the siblings are scrambling for a plan on the Icarus Theater stage all panicked about their impending Doom.
Except Klaus. Klaus' end of the world face is pretty...serene. Just gonna clutch these dog tags and think sweetly of my dead boyfriend til the bitter end.
Five: We use my ability to time travel, but this time, I take you with me.
Diego: You can do that?
Five: I don't know, I've never tried it before.
There's a first time for everything.
What we see in the final scene is the siblings all reverting to age 13. If my theory about why Five ended up in a 13 year old body is correct, then he has brought their consciousness to a 2002 Dimension - but could technically be jumping them to any Dimension, any time. They could be in 13 year old bodies, but ultimately wind up back in a 2019 Dimension C universe immediately, or somewhere else entirely.
However, I do feel like the plot is going to stick them back in 2002, because that's more interesting character-development-wise. (By the way, if all this is correct, they've done the same thing Five did and displaced the consciousness of their 13 year old selves - essentially killing them all).
Ethical quandary for the day: If your older self kills your younger self to steal their body, is this murder?
I'm very interested to see what will happen next - will they just spend some small amount of time in a 2002 Dimension "fixing" their relationship with Vanya, and then have Five jump their consciousness forward into 29 year old bodies? I would guess so, because if they stay in a 2002 Dimension and age naturally, they're going to all end up weirder than ever - living out their teens and 20's as people really in their 30's and 40's. And Five will be like, what, a 70 year old? Eesh.
Plus, the audience will want them to get back to adulthood pretty quick. Nothing against the child actors, but that's just reality. They could do most of the aging off-screen, like we cut from 2002 back to 2019 and don't watch them grow up, but that still makes them all weirdly old consciousness-wise, like Five.
I'm really upset this probably means we'll get a new adult Five. I will hate him for no reason, like you hate a new teacher who replaced the old teacher you loved, because I want Aidan Gallagher on the show forever. If they find a good way for the plot to have him stuck as 13 somehow and age up naturally, that would be
fantastic.
What do you guys think?
Update 4/16/19: I've posted
Proof Against a Single Timeline Interpretation which is me testing out the idea "
Can a single timeline explain the events we see on screen?" It was originally part of this one but I cut it for length.
However, it does address some of the questions people asked here like "
If there are multiple timelines why does the Temps Commission care about altering events?" and features a very ugly but very useful graphic I made in Paint to help explain why.
submitted by Use the Single return calculator to work out your winnings online for all sports. Free, easy to use and mobile friendly bet calculator. Use our single bet calculator to work out your potential betting returns on a standard straight bet. Free, easy to use and available for all betting markets. Use our free bet calculator to work out exactly how much profit you stand to win from your selections. Check potential winnings on a single, accumulator, lucky 15 or any other type of bet. The single bet calculator produces accurate returns and profit s for single bets. The tool has functions which deal with circumstances like each-way bets, R4 Deductions and dead heats. The tool is quick and accurate as long as the correct information is entered in the right fields. BetCalc - Each Way Single Bet Calculator. CALCULATORS. Accumulator Bet. Equal Profit Dutch. Back/Lay Hedge. Saver (No Bet) Each Way Single. Value Bet. Odds Converter. Lay Nil-Nil. Poker Odds. Sudoku Help. INFORMATION. Glossary. News. Offers. Links. About. Search. Blog. Data. Each Way Single Bet Calculator. Total Stake Odds E/W Odds Result Single Bet Calculator. Have you won on your horse racing bet and want to know what you’ve won? Use our free, mobile-friendly singles bet calculator now to work out what you can expect back from the bookies! Use the single bet calculator now: A Single bet consists of 1 selection which must win for you to make a profit. The Single Bet Calculator allows you to calculate the combined stake, return and profit for up to 20 Singles at a time, with the same comprehensive range of options available to the Free Bet Calculator.
OddsMonkey - http://oddsmonkey.org.ukA video showing a guaranteed profit that I made on an Each Way bet on a horse, found using the Eachway matcher tool in O... We just launched the super-exciting and rocking BonanzaBallz! Your girl Unity shows you how you can place a bet and win. Our BonanzaBallz is the first of it's kind in Nigeria, and it's coming from ... Here we are with the third in a series of how to bet on sports. This is when things heat up! We're looking at the implied probabilities, implied odds and the... We first released advanced dutching way back in 2006 and expanded its capability from there. Rather than just allow you to place a dutch bet such, as you fin... Betting on College Football - College Football Betting Strategy - College Football Betting Tips - Duration: 6:30. WagerTalk TV: Sports Picks and Betting Tips 9,029 views 6:30 listen to Tay Money - Bussin "I feel like a whole brand new bitch": https://cmg.ffm.to/hurricanetaysupport weary°https://instagram.com/https://spotify.com/su... If you are into psychology, illusions, bets you always win, magic, and the impossible, this is the place to be. ... Gaurav Bhandari attempted 6 digit x 6 digit multiplication in a single line in ... Here we are joined by Gareth Walker of BettorStrategy to talk through how to use Each Way betting appropriately. Tune in to hear what Gareth has to say on th... Oddsmonkey Matched betting essentials reviewed - Start your FREE 30 DAY TRIAL: https://www.oddsmonkey.com/affiliates/affiliate.php?id=55032 In this video we ... Preeti Ma'am, Turbo Math expert and Master Teacher of Vedantu Online Master Classes, shares awesome new mental Maths tips, trick & Methods with answers, to i...