Understanding Terminator Timelines

[Niliu]

With the modern understanding of time travel being that we cannot alter our own lived past, and any major alteration causes a divergent timeline, whereas minor alterations that don't alter how events ultimately play out are like pebbles in a current, doesn't alter the course of the river's flow.

With that in mind, let's dive in and try to see how many timelines we have now, and what happened in each. Whether these timelines diverge from the original timeline, or from new timelines created by the films is up for debate.

*Note: Sarah Connor Chronicles is included at the end, but it's also a but more detailed and convoluted than I can really go into in a discussion post, so it's going to be very generalized.

Prime Timeline

The first, or Prime, timeline would actually be a timeline we only see brief glimpses of, where Kyle Reese in the first film comes from. In this timeline, Judgement Day happened, and man wins the Future War.

Timeline Two

The second timeline is what we spend most of The Terminator in, in 1984. Created when Skynet and John Connor sent agents from the Future War to kill/protect Sarah Connor, mistakenly believing they could alter events in their own timeline. The primary differences are the forewarning for Sarah and John, John's father changing, and in response to the Resistance being that much stronger, Skynet moves further ahead technologically.

Timeline Three

Where we spend all of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, this timeline diverges from Timeline-Two when the Terminators from the Future War are sent back to protect/kill John Connor himself. The main divergence in this timeline is that Judgement Day never happens, as Cyberdyne, and all the information related to Skynet/Terminators was destroyed.

Timeline Four

The fourth timeline was created when the T-X and T-850 were sent back to kill John's lieutenants/protect John. In this timeline, Sarah died of cancer after the original Judgement Day date passed. The T-850 apparently killed John in the Future War before being captured and reprogrammed. The main differences are that Skynet has no core, and is actually using the combined processing power of every connected machine on Earth, and Judgement Day happens 6 years late. There is no Future War, as Skynet ultimately kills itself when it nukes the world, as without a shielded core to protect itself, all it's processing power and storage would've been destroyed by the blasts and emps.

Timeline Five

A timeline that follows the events of the fourth timeline, but assumes Skynet was smarter and didn't kill itself at the end of the 3rd film. The delayed Judgement Day made the machines more advanced, and allowed the T-800 to be developed sooner than in previous timelines, and also had human cyborgs. Skynet is also dealt a crippling blow when it's facility is destroyed by John.

Timeline Six

A Future War we only see a brief glimpse of that mirrors the Prime Future War, but Skynet had downloaded itself into an avatar and infected John with nanites that turned him into a Skynet-controlled human-cyborg, creating a temporal paradox of sorts at the same time Kyle is in the time-stream, allowing him to see a different version of himself.

Timeline Seven

The timeline Kyle-Six arrives in, where a T-1000 and T-800 had been sent to the year 1973 to kill/protect Sarah as a child. When the "original" T-800 arrives, it is immediately killed by the 73' T-800, Pops. When Kyle arrives, he's immediately accosted by the T-1000, who Sarah and Pops kill with acid. Sarah and Pops plan to go to '97 to stop Skynet before it can wipe out humanity, but Kyle's time-stream visions made him realise that Judgement Day would not be in 97', or 03', but 2017. John reveals himself in 2017 as the party responsible for sending a machine after his mother as a child, and the new creator of Skynet, or "Genisys". Genisys is stopped, and the HQ destroyed. Kyle visits his younger self and gives him the warning to repeat outloud for himself to hear when in the time-bubble, closing the paradox.
*Note: Genisys drew on aspects of the original concept for The Terminator. Cameron wanted to do the two opposing Terminators in the first film, but the CGI wasn't good enough to make a liquid Terminator, so they went with one cyborg, one human.

Timeline Eight

Diverges after the events of Timeline Three. John is killed in a final act of revenge by a T-800, Sarah hunts down all the Terminators Skynet has sent back over the years and doesn't die of cancer. Legion is created and wages war on humanity, and Dani Ramos is Legion's John Connor, mentored by Sarah. Dani sends a cybernetically enhanced soldier, Grace, back in time to protect her younger self.

Timeline Nine

Grace follows a Rev-9 back to 2020 from 2042. Sarah thinks they're Terminators, but Grace reveals Sarah's ultimate success in killing Skynet in this timeline. An attempt is made to stop Legion from forming, but the Rev-9 successfully prevents it, for now. The T-800 who killed John becomes self-aware, and is ultimately killed in the final battle, after Grace is killed, and her power source jammed into the Rev-9, the T-800, "Carl", throws himself and the Rev-9 off a ledge, with Grace's power source killing them both.

Timeline Ten

After the events of T2, Sarah is being hunted since she's an escaped, "violent deranged" asylum patient, and she and John "killed" Miles Dyson. After Terminators come after them again, which is in line with the Dark Fate timeline, they decide to stop Skynet for good, again, same as Dark Fate. Whatever they do in the 90s pushes Judgement Day back past the T3 2003 date, and they travel forward along the same timeline to 2007 and stop some form of Judgement Day. It is also the ONLY timeline to feature machines who rebelled against Skynet.

[BlissDefiler]

Timeline 10

Skynet's judgement day is fully averted and John Connor goes down the path of alcoholism and cocaine.

[Niliu]

Originally posted by BlissDefiler:

Timeline 10

Skynet's judgement day is fully averted and John Connor goes down the path of alcoholism and cocaine.

True, I guess a timeline where none of it happened and Connor is a normal dude...

[BlissDefiler]

Originally posted by Niliu:

Originally posted by BlissDefiler:

Timeline 10

Skynet's judgement day is fully averted and John Connor goes down the path of alcoholism and cocaine.

True, I guess a timeline where none of it happened and Connor is a normal dude...

It's our current timeline unfortunately, mate. :/

[Niliu]

Originally posted by BlissDefiler:

Originally posted by Niliu:

True, I guess a timeline where none of it happened and Connor is a normal dude...

It's our current timeline unfortunately, mate. :/

Naw, cause we're aware of it :P

[Ģ◊иℤ◊⚡ℤ∀муpΛй]

sarah conner chronicles is a bit odd, and its timeline is not really mentioned but its probably between T2 & T3 1999 - 2009.

[Niliu]

Originally posted by Ģ◊иℤ◊⚡ℤ∀муpΛй:

sarah conner chronicles is a bit odd, and its timeline is not really mentioned but its probably between T2 & T3 1999 - 2009.

Oh, I know where it fits chronologically, it takes place immediately after the events of T2 in 1995. T3 never happens in that timeline.

Like I said, I only watched like 2 episodes, and mostly for Summer Glau (I was young and simpy) but I have read about it pretty thoroughly, I just don't trust that what I read has all the details, I often find myself arguing with a synopsis that gets motivations wrong because of minor details.

For example, in the "Legacy of the Force" book series, Jacen Solo became Darth Caedus. They've retconned it as he went dark because he saw a vision of his daughter on the throne of the galaxy, but with a Sith beside her, and he wanted to avoid that outcome, altering the flow of time and unleashing Abeloth, the Force in Chaos. In the actual book where he accepts he has to become a Sith, he's been lured into an asteroid base where one of Palpatine's "Emperors Hand" warriors, Lumiya, had taken on the mantle of the Sith, and wanted Jacen as the new Dark Lord. When the machinations are revealed and the Jedi, Jacen and a Jedi who loves him, Nelani, fight Lumiya. Jacen stops partway through the fight and Nelani is getting the upper hand over Lumiya and her lightwhip. Jacen looks into the future to see what happens after this fight, and because of how they were manipulated, and how Lumiya was still manipulating his visions (why she was losing to lowley knight) and caused every way he played out the scenario to show him and Luke fighting to the death.

In the moment, he refused to take the path that would lead to him being forced to kill his own family, even though he ultimately kills his aunt himself, blows a hole clean through the Falcon's turrets, killing both gunners and nearly killing Han and Leia.

He was ultimately killed by his sister, Jaina. She was the Sword of the Jedi, and since Jacen had travelled the Galaxy and learned techniques no Jedi knew, she decided to learn from people who specialize in killing Jedi... in the old canon, that really meant only one person... Boba Fett.