MML: Time Shields Theory!

If you've read my About Page, you know I'm a fan of Milo Murphy's Law, and a huge fan of time travel. Here, on New Year's Eve--the night when everybody thinks about the past and the future--I'm giving you a post about both. Both Milo Murphy's Law and time travel, I mean. I don't know if it'll be about the past and the future. But we'll see. I'm Clara Murphy, Queen of Fan Theories, and here's one for Milo Murphy's Law.

NOTE: This is a very complicated theory. I may natter on a bit. Please bear with me in that situation.

WARNING!!!

This post will contain multiple spoilers for Milo Murphy's Law. If you have not seen all the episodes so far, do so. The entirety of this post is based on spoilers.

Now that that's done with, let me proceed.

In the episode, World Without Milo, Elliot the crossing-guard--what's that? Oh yeah, sorry--the Safety Czar, gets his wish. As you can guess, he gets a glimpse into a world where Milo does not exist, and nobody even knows who Milo is. Near the end of the episode, Cavendish and Dakota show up in their time vehicle. Apparently, they accidentally changed something in the past, and now Milo doesn't exist. (And seemingly, there's also Milo-shaped balloons and talking squirrels.) Elliot asks why he's the only one that remembers Milo. Dakota in reply asks if he has a lead-lined stop sign there, and Elliot thinks it is. Well, that must have shielded Elliot's brain from the time waves, Dakota surmises. It did not, however, shield his head from that telephone pole. And the rest, you can see in the episode.

So what, you ask? So what if he's got a lead-lined stop sign? The writers probably just threw that in so it'd make SOME sense! It's not important!

I don't think so. If Murphy's Law is that anything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong, Milo Murphy's Law is that EVERYTHING THAT COULD POSSIBLY be important WILL be important. The tiniest details could end up being vital to saving the world. And I think this whole notion of 'time shields' is much more important than we think.

For my first and probably biggest example, let me direct your attention (unless you're Cavendish) to the Island of Lost Dakotas.

Sorry the picture's so blurry!

So, in said episode, we find out that Cavendish dies on the job. Apparently a lot. And every time, Dakota goes back in time, switches places with his past self, and saves Cavendish before whatever happened HAPPENS. Then the past Dakota takes a postcard (given to him by the other Dakota) and goes to a remote island. That island is populated entirely by him--lots of him. Those are all the past versions of himself, sent there after Dakota saved Cavendish. They literally have their own civilization there.

But there are several things that don't make sense. First off, why doesn't Cavendish notice that there are multiple time vehicles littered all over the timeline and the world? If the multiple Dakotas don't disappear, neither should the time vehicles.

To be honest, that could make for an easy out in the Pistachion Invasion plot--Fungus Among Us and all that, I mean. Dakota could just go to anywhere in the world, and take that time vehicle back in time to prevent the whole thing from happening. BUT that's not even the worst of it. Because this whole multitude of Dakotas should not even exist.

Why is that? For the answer, we have to go back to the beginning of summer...

Well, actually, we have to see what happens when Future Candace goes back to the beginning of summer.

In the Phineas and Ferb episode, "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo", Phineas and Ferb go thirty years into the future. Future Candace takes their time machine back to the beginning of summer (like I said), and busts their rollercoaster caper to their mom. When she (Future Candace) returns to her own time, it's... different, to say the least. A despotism ruled over by Doofenshmirtz where children are outlawed and everyone has to wear lab coats, to say the most. Well, not the most. The most would be an encyclopedia entry, or possibly the entry on Wikia.

So, anyway, she goes back in time to stop herself from busting her (much younger) brothers. Then the both of them go to Phineas and Ferb after the crash of the rollercoaster, and explain the whole situation. (I think the time machine got busted or something, and they need to fix it.) Basically, this is what happens:

Again, sorry for the bad quality!

Since Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law both happen in not only the same universe but the same town, I'm going to say that the laws of physics (such as they are) are the same. Two versions of a person from alternate timelines can exist simultaneously. However, they can't exist like that indefinitely. Coexist is not an option. Eventually, the one from the bad future, or the future that doesn't exist anymore... poofs. Admittedly, there is a delay. It honestly seems like it's delayed until someone points out that the one shouldn't exist, and then physics are like "Oh darn" and kick in to poof the one out of existence.

We see this same situation in A Christmas Peril, the latest episode of Milo Murphy. Future versions of Cavendish and Dakota go back in time twenty (I think) years to prevent their past selves from parting ways. And they go to some insane lengths, let me tell you. But after they succeed, all the numerous future versions disappear (or, uh, poof) leaving their past selves standing in the wreckage. That's how it worked in P&F's Quantum Boogaloo (except the wreckage part) because those future versions were from a future that did not exist. And it even happens after they realize that they shouldn't exist. So time still works the same way.

BUT... how does that work with the Island of Lost Dakotas?

When Dakota prevented Cavendish from dying, he was also preventing a future where Cavendish did not exist. But that would mean that the him that knew about it would poof out of existence. And he did not. All those times, and not one of him poofed. He somehow lasted long enough to get onto some kind of transportation and get to the island. Unless we're literally going to say that the whole poofing-out-of-existence thing WILL NOT TAKE EFFECT unless they realize that they should not exist. Which, to be honest, could work, what with the "Phineas and Ferb Logic" aka "Down With Physics". But that's a huge stretch.

This is where time shields come in. Time shields are basically a certain object, usually lead-lined, that are unaffected by time waves, and can shield a person's brain from being affected by time waves as well. That means that person wouldn't forget something that had been erased from existence, as in the case of Elliot and Milo. But if the shield was big enough, it could potentially shield the person from being erased themselves.

Hmm...

Let's take a look at this thing. The first time Cavendish died, Dakota would have had to do a LOT of planning to figure out what he needed to do. And I've gotta hand it to Dakota on this one: something like this takes careful planning and precision. It's really a compliment to his intelligence that he was able to successfully pull it off. Anyway, everything had to be perfect, or it might not work. My thinking is that he picked that specific island for a reason: there was a naturally-occurring time shield around it. Because of that time shield, the alternate hims wouldn't be affected by the time waves, and thus could continue existing there on the island. However, it's more complicated than even that.

(You probably just groaned and said 'of COURSE it is...' didn't you?)

First off, why wouldn't he just let the alternate hims disappear? It would be a whole lot less trouble for the present him. Plus, Cavendish wouldn't be able to accidentally find the alternate Dakotas, as he might with an island. So why not? Did he just not realize that they could poof out of existence?

Of course he realized that. He had to be really precise, as I said before. He would know that they could just poof. So I think he had a reason for keeping all these alternate hims on that island. I don't know what it is. But I suspect there's some sort of purpose--there always is. He wouldn't decide on all that if he didn't have a reason.

But the second objection to this theory is stronger: it still doesn't take care of the fact that all the 'Lost Dakotas' shouldn't exist. Well, that's because I haven't explained that part yet. And now we get into the really complicated stuff.

Let me first specify that I'm not going to attempt bending the laws of physics like Phineas and Ferb. This won't mess up anything that's already established in the shows. If it did, it wouldn't be a good theory. Just to get that out the way.

So, Dakota goes back in time just a few minutes, and prevents Cavendish from dying. The one that went back in time is the one from the Bad Future, and so would be the one to disappear. But anyway, like I said before, there seems to be a short delay on the whole poofing thing. Because he only went back a few minutes, the delay lasts long enough for him to progress naturally past the time at which he went back. That way, he himself won't disappear.

But there still can't be two of him from different timelines in the same one. That's a big no-no, as he said himself. So, the timeline would compensate by erasing the other one, aka the past version that Dakota switched with. And yes, this would also mean that the many, many time vehicles littered all over space and time would disappear as well. So now there's just the one.

Okay, that makes sense so far. I think. But how does the Island of Lost Dakotas still work? Well, when Dakota goes back in time, he gives his past self a city bus pass and a picture or postcard of the island. My thinking on the matter is that the picture acts as a Time Shield (maybe it has some lead in it or something). Present Dakota gives it to Past Dakota, which keeps the latter from nonexistence as he proceeds on his way to the island. When he gets there, he's safe, because of the naturally-occurring Time Shield around the island. Which I mentioned earlier.

But then the Present Dakota also told his past self to "send me a postcard". The postcard is the picture. This way, he gets the picture/Time Shield back so he can give it to his past self the next time this kind of thing happens. 

 

Oh, wait, there's another point I almost forgot. Why does he give himself the picture? Wouldn't he already have it, since he's, you know, the same person but from five minutes ago? Then again, that's really more a flaw in the story itself than with my theory. But I'll see about it--maybe there can only be one of any certain Time Shield in a timeline. When Dakota tried his plan the first couple of times, he found out that once he went back and crossed his own timeline, the Time Shield/picture his past self had disappeared. Maybe. So he has to give the Time Shield to his past self, or it wouldn't work.

One more thing hasn't been explained: why the older Dakotas all poofed in A Christmas Peril. But that's not scientific, really. After the two of them parted ways, Dakota just stopped carrying the Time Shield around with him. It's not like he was going to be going back for him anymore. Thus, the older hims from the Bad Future didn't have it, and all of them poofed.

Okay, I'm mostly done explaining now.

But there is one thing to note. Time Shields don't only prevent alternate versions of oneself from disappearing. They can also prevent the erasing of someone whose existence was prevented.

Yeah, that didn't make much sense. Let's say... Elliot's existence was altered by someone going back in time and changing things, and now Elliot shouldn't exist. No one would remember him. But, he would still be there, and probably would still remember who he is. Why? Because his lead-lined stop sign acts as a Time Shield. It protects him. It's a similar situation to George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life--he got his wish that he'd never been born, but he also got to see what it was like, and walk around in that world. He had some sort of... celestial time shield, I guess.

Whoo! That was a lot of scientific thinking for my brain to do. Did you follow me all the way through? If so, you are amazing. Now all I'm going to do is wonder what else might be a Time Shield.

Well, we know Elliot's stop sign is a Time Shield. I already noted that the picture of the island is probably also a Time Shield. There are some other possibilities. For example, Savannah's jewellery. Knowing her, it'll probably have multiple functions. Perhaps, after learning about the concept in her earlier days as a time agent, she bought the jewellery. That way, in case something was altered in the past, she'd still remember it and be able to fix it. I can't think of any others, can you? Let me know in the comments.

I suppose there are also other things that could shield one from time waves. Last Day of Summer (last episode of P&F) poses a lot of extra variables. Doofenshmirtz and Candace were the only ones who noticed that the day was looping over and over, and also were the only ones who could remember the things that disappeared. But that's also easy to explain. They were both right next to the Do-Over-Inator when it activated, and were probably caught in its radius (or something). Thus, they were shielded from the time waves.

Also, Time Shields don't protect one from having their memories wiped by a machine, or general amnesia. Just time-travel related things. Thought I'd add that.

(I would insert a pic of Buford going 'STOP SPLAINING!' but I couldn't find one.)

OH MY GOSH that was a lot. Sorry! I told you I was done with the scientific stuff, but I guess I lied. But now I'm really done with it.

Well, I told you I was going to talk about Milo Murphy's Law and time travel, and I did that. I mentioned I might talk about the past and the future. I talked about people going into the past, for sure. I talked about past episodes of past shows. What about the future?

Well, I know I'M looking forward to seeing that Phineas and Ferb/Milo Murphy's Law Crossover in the near future! And I'm planning on doing a lot more posts in the coming year, too. But for the present, I'll just say...

Happy New Year, everybody!

A Christmas Carol--Scrooge's Christmas Yet to Come

Everybody knows the story of A Christmas Carol. Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly, grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner, is shown the error of his ways one Christmas Eve by the three Spirits of Christmas. And since it's Christmastime now, a lot of people are reliving that story, in a lot of different ways, from "Marley was dead, to begin with" to "God bless us everyone!" But have you ever wondered what happened after the book left off? I'm Clara Murphy, Queen of Fandoms, and here is a fan theory for A Christmas Carol.

So, in the Disney adaptation of the tale, I noticed something this year. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come points at the gravestone, sending snow flying out of the way to reveal the name of Ebenezer Scrooge on it, and then progresses through the dates. First the date of birth, then slowly, the date of death. We see he would have died on Christmas Day. We don't see the exact year. But if you look closely, the third number appears to be a 4.

(Pause at 1:16 to see for yourself)

What does this mean? I think it means Scrooge would have died the same year that Tiny Tim would have died, a year or two after the story. So... about 1845. The woman selling his bedcurtains and such says he died all alone, no friends or anyone beside him as he lay there, gasping out his last breath. However, we all know these are shadows of things that may be, but things that can be changed if the course is altered. Which it clearly is.

Now, there may be some people who'd say that all the things that happened that night were just a dream or a nightmare Scrooge had. But I don't believe that. No, Scrooge was visited by real ghosts that Christmas Eve. And I furthermore think that he was taken by those ghosts to those Christmases, past, present, and future. Interestingly enough, in the sequence where the Ghost of Christmas Present shows him around London on Christmas Day, he sees a young boy going down the street in front of his house with a sled. Later, that same boy is the one he gets to buy the turkey. And at his nephew Fred's house, he hears them playing a guessing game, in which the answer is himself. However, at the end of the movie, he interrupts that exact same guessing game.

In other words? Ebenezer Scrooge is a time traveller.

Okay, maybe not like that. But what the heck.

But what, you ask, about that title? What does all this you've just said have to do with the title? And I say, good question.

Well, if he really time travelled, then that means, he really saw his own tombstone. All the things that happened were on the same Christmas Yet To Come. Thus he and Tiny Tim would have died the same year. But in the words of a famous time-travelling doctor, "The future isn't written yet." Scrooge promises to change, and he does indeed. He plans a secret Christmas surprise for Bob Cratchit and family, joins his nephew for Christmas dinner, and then gives Bob a raise and promises to help his family and Tiny Tim in particular. "And to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he became like a second father." The future has been changed.

There's not much else that we learn about what happens after the book ends. Scrooge becomes known as a man who knows how to keep Christmas well. He turns out to be as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city ever knew. That's about all we know. But...

What else has changed?

Well, before I go into that, I need to tell you how I think it would have gone, had Scrooge not changed. Let's say he gets a terrible illness sometime in 1844, but doesn't notice it himself. Since he doesn't have friends, they can't very well be worried about his health. Sometime in November, he finally notices it when it's in some specially bad stages. He grudgingly hires the cheapest doctor possible, who can't do much at that late stage. The doctor does all he can, but goes home for Christmas, and Scrooge dies alone in his cold house on Christmas Day.

But Scrooge has changed. He's not a lone miser anymore. He honours Christmas in his heart all the year long. He might not have disbanded his business (which is my opinion, anyway), but he is generous and kind, and has become a good friend to many. So, let's just see how things have changed with him. Now he has friends--dear friends and family--who would worry about his health. They would notice right off if he was getting sick, and then want him to get the best doctor. They would stay, even on Christmas, and make sure he got well.

So in a way, by losing his own life (his old one of miserly misery, anyway), he saved it. We all know he saved his soul, but he saved his life as well.

What does this mean for the years following? I'm not really sure. Assuming he's... oh, about fifty, maybe sixty when A Christmas Carol happens, he might live another twenty to thirty years, keeping Christmas well. And perhaps, that could lead to other sorts of... adventures. Just what sort exactly is up to the imagination of whoever reads it, I guess. Come up with your own in the comments below!

I mean, just the knowledge that the man's a time traveller should be enough to get some idea or other turning. He could meet up with other time travellers, some possibly quite famous. (I mean, the one in the picture's the most obvious one, but there's others too. Not naming any names: I'll let you do that in the comments. Well, I might name some there...) Or he might meet other famous fictional characters of the time period--Sherlock Holmes is the first that comes to mind. Unless Holmes would be younger then. Would he even be born during the time Scrooge might be alive? I don't know. But it might be cool anyway.

There might be any number of things that could happen. Or, he might live a perfectly normal life. You never know. Think what you like. I personally like to wonder what might happen in Scrooge's Christmases Yet to Come. But for now, let's get ready to join him in keeping this one well.

Merry Christmas! And as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, everyone!