Killing Skynet Once And For All

[stealthgear]

Everytime someone comes back, including every terminator, it creates a new timelime. So we can't be aware of every change unless they specifically show it. Thats kinda what the 1930s one was about.

The more they know, the more control they have. We know Cameron has all the logs of hidden terminators somewhere in memory! BUT her chip is damaged!!

By now we realize that killing skynet before or after its born aren't the best option!!! Its futile. They'll have to literally track down every terminator that time traveled to ensure that it doesn't build skynet again. This would be the purpose of killing Catherine at some point.


To stop skynet they must;

1. Obliterate skynet and their time machine in the future, by protecting John
2. Go back and destroy or reverse actions of every hidden terminator
3. Prevent all AIs from being born from skynet seeds. Theres obviously multiple, the Turk, Traffic System, John Henry.

How:
To do this they just have to convert enough good terminators with knowledge of the bad ones locations and send them back. Like if they sent back tons of Camerons or humans.

Is this right? Anyways I agree with the multiple timeline situation.

In season 2 the main characters are LOST. It would be more fun to watch the main characters struggle with the solution they already know is right. Thats why Terminator 2 was good. I guess I realize thats the point. BUT I hope we get to see where they have a hand in changing the present, the future, and the past. Thats where the fun stories are!! Thats what I hope season 3 will be about.

[richardstevenhack]

The point of making the Skynet conspiracy bigger is simply to make the story more interesting.

But there are limits. There is no evidence that Skynet has sent ten thousand Terminators back in time to insure it's creation in every possible timeline. And it would be a REALLY BAD IDEA to write the story that way.

Skynet is not even a superintelligence. If it was, it would beat John Connor by lunch time. Skynet is really not much smarter than Connor. And it's presumably hampered by its own version of paranoia and whatever else drives it to try to exterminate or rule humans.

The story is only interesting if the relative strengths of the Resistance and Skynet are approximately equal, with the outcome in doubt. If the Resistance is being crushed, the story is not interesting. If Terminators are being wiped out, the story is not interesting.

The reason Skynet sent its original Terminator back in time is because, as Kyle Reese, Skynet was losing: "We'd won". So it attempted to change the course of the war by eliminating the leader of the Resistance. There was no indication until T-2 that the goal was to insure Skynet's creation in the first place. That was an additional plot concept added in T-2 and it wasn't even Skynet's intention - it was Sarah's. It was a good addition because logically it made sense to stop Judgment Day by stopping Skynet from existing.

The series had to explain why Skynet still existed after Cyberdyne blew up. So they invented a plot where some other AI, peripherally connected to Cyberdyne via Andy Goode, becomes the new Skynet. And they left open the possibility that even if "The Turk" doesn't become Skynet that some other AI could be.

Which is all fine, until one starts abusing the concept by making it ridiculously large.

This is why this season has been irritating to me: Skynet may have lost some side plots - which, if you buy the time travel abuse going on, is easily replaceable - while the Connors have lost the whole purpose of stopping Skynet from being created.

There is no need to stop every AI program - not all AIs will necessarily become Skynet. What IS needed is for the reality that an AI CAN become Skynet to become well known to everybody, not just theoretically possible. Which is why the Connors should be exposing the Skynet conspiracy as much as they can. Again, the reason they don't is simply because that's the way the writers want to keep the story somewhat contained. I think that's an over-reaction but it's understandable. However, it's not a good idea because the story can be made bigger and more interesting if Skynet has to worry about exposure as well as worrying about the Connors.

My problem is that the more the story is about predestination and fate - the notion that it is IMPOSSIBLE to stop Skynet and Judgment Day - the less interesting it becomes. If the Connors truly cannot stop Skynet - the specific Skynet that causes Judgment Day - from existing, then the entire franchise is a waste of time. It makes hash of the whole "the future is not set" concept. It also makes hash of the entire notion that this is supposed to be a cautionary tale about human technology. If Skynet is inevitable, then what's the point?

It's one thing to say that in attempting to change one's fate - especially by stupid means - you end up sealing it, and quite another to say that fate cannot be changed at all.

In my view, the story should be kept simple. There are a limited number of ways Skynet can be created, and the Connors - possibly with some help from others - need to find those ways and shut them down one by one. You could easily run the series for five or ten seasons on that basis without ever coming to a conclusion. And you don't need a conclusion since the T-4 and beyond movies establish that Judgment Day does happen, at least in that time line. The series could just as well end on the note that nobody knows - because until John Connor grows old and dies normally, nobody can know whether they won or not.

That's entirely different from buying into the T-3 and T-4 notions that Judgment Day cannot be stopped and the only purpose of the series is to get John used to failing regularly. While failure is a good teacher, I don't think the fact that the Connors do fail inevitably will make for a very good show. I suppose it can still be entertaining in watching them fail and screw up repeatedly, which is what season two has been all about so far at least, but in the end it makes for an unsatisfying show - unless one is a sadist who likes watching masochists.

As for the notion of converting good Terminators who know the bad Terminators., there's no evidence that Cameron knew every Terminator - or she would have recognized the female one on sight. She just happened to know the one sent back to the 1920's because the writers needed that to be true to make any sense. Actually, I think she didn't know him either - she just viewed his picture and determined that he was a Terminator by analyzing his appearance. She just said she knew him because Eric was present and she had to explain why she was interested in some random individual in a picture from the 1920's. As Eric pointed out, she couldn't know him if she were human. They moved on at that point having established that Cameron had identified this individual as a Terminator. But there's nothing that says she knew him personally - having seen his model elsewhere or something. Of course, she could have. But there's no evidence she or any other Terminator necessarily know every model. She didn't seem to know Carter in season one - or Vic.

And Skynet would probably never reveal the missions of the Terminators sent to the past to other Terminators, just as John never revealed to anyone but Cameron and possibly his senior generals like General Perry that Kyle was sent back to protect Sarah.

So that plan won't work.

By the way, I retract what I said earlier in another thread about Cameron not knowing Derek is John's uncle. Charley Dixon figured it out, except he thought Derek was John's father, based on the rare blood type. Cameron on the other hand knows that Derek had a brother, and that Kyle Reese was sent back to protect John exactly sixteen years and nine months before John was born. She's not stupid, so she undoubtedly has reasoned that Derek is John's uncle. She's just never said she knows.