That actually seems much more interesting to me. I'm far more interested in an exploration of those ideas than the earlier concepts.

 

Agreed, this is a great improvement. Though how will you stage conflicts between the two?

 

Will the protagonist know from the beginning that his future self is the antagonist? I think that could be one mindfuck of a story.

Anyway, something I was thinking of is that, in your story, is the universe an active force in its own right? Say, for instance, that you went back in time and murdered your grandfather before he and your grandmother conceived your father. Would the universe simply get you a new grandfather so that paradox never occurred? If so, would you suddenly have differently colored hair or changed features the instant you killed the guy? I think having existence itself as a character could be an interesting point, if a bit difficult to write properly.

Relating this back to the original question, maybe the antagonist finally goes too far and the universe royally fucks him up. It's a believable way to die, seeing as the protagonist is by definition younger and less experienced. The antagonist keeps escalating the conflict until reality has had enough and turns him into paste.

 

You could have it so that the antagonist has a limit on how much he can mess with causality. To take your sword example he can do it because the universe compensates for the fact of the sword having no origin, but there are limits to it.

Then you could have the protagonist trick him in to trying to overstep his limits and cause a change so big and paradox causing that in order to compensate the universe erases the antagonist.

e.g. the protagonist saves the antagonists life in the past, he then tricks the antagonist into trying to kill him before he saves his life which causes the universe to retaliate.

 

Did you happen to see Looper? I think you might enjoy it.

 

I have yet to see that, was it any good?

 

I was plesantly surprised, actually. Enjoyed the time travel aspects, but it was also just a good story.

 

Did you ever run across a movie named 'Jumpers'? If no, check it out. There is no time-travel, however the hero has the ability to teleport himself anywhere he wishes and how a secret society uses a force field to contain him/them(the jumpers).

For this to work out, you need to create an effective backmstory regarding the organisation, it's evolution and the technical aspects of the technology they employ to cut off the ability to time-travel until they kill the traveler in question.

Or

We know enough on people with supernatural powers that everyone has a weakness. Suppose the time-travel doesn't work when exposed to the radiation of a specific element or in a magnetic force field and so on. You get the idea.

Good luck.

 

While Rache has some good point about teleportation, don't watch Jumper. It's a terrible film with a horrible plot, where the only thing saving it from an Uwe Boll-esque rating is Samuel L. Jackon.

 

The book Jumper was a lot better than the movie if you ever care to read it.

 

You should play inFAMOUS

 

I liked Jumper, the movie, because of the way they used the electric force field gadget to harpoon the teleporters.

Have you seen Heroes, the tv show? It started out awesome but by the end majorly sucked (although the time travel episodes were epic). They control the time traveler by giving him brain damage or something so he has to limit his use. Also they give him memory loss once too.

A person with teleportation powers and another with telekinesis could latch onto the time traveler and go with him as he jumps (telekinetic can always "push" or "move" the traveler, esp. if the jump is not instantaneous (and if they put some sort of tracker on him then teleporter can be there in a few seconds, let's say) so that they might kill the "other" him or both hims.

If it's just two time travelers then there is some seriously twisted stuff they can do to each other in past, present, future (for example set Saw like traps for their past self or something sick like that until the person bends or expires).

 

For the first version: Trap him in his own mind. Make him believe he is time travelling when he is really just imagining it. That would require another super though--I don't think it could be accomplished with TK or Teleportation. And...this might end up too similar to Inception/some other mindfuck story.

For the second: It's seems to be a plot about a man fighting against his fate. Do we have free will, or is fate inevitable? The question is further complicated by the fact that time isn't linear for this guy.
Also, is there no...paradox from having one people in the same place at the same time? I think it would be easier make Younger and Older distinct form each other if they never met, and could only see the effects of the other's actions in retrospect.

 

Hell, something I just thought of. Say antagonist goes back in time, and kills protagonist as a kid. Do they both stop existing? If not, then say protagonist goes back to when antagonist went back and stopped him from killing them as a kid.

This shit would all get so confusing that I think the human brain wouldn't be able to take it. Time traveling in too many complex ways could literally end up driving you mad trying to keep it all straight. Either that, or you do what every human being does. Make a mistake. You forget to go back five years and then forward three to stop him from going back nine so he can't go forward fifteen in order to stop you from going back eleven. It would just go on and on.

 

Rache: Jumper was actually the idea behind why I started thinking up this plot; only Time instead of Space. Also, I'm a bit hesitant to actually add an organisation as I don't want to rip off the idea too much. Also the fact of adding even more tt'ers (from the past, present and future) makes the time line more of a clusterfuck than I would be able to manage.

I will consider some weaknesses, but that kind of ruins the effect I was trying to go for; potentially limitless.

Justbrowsing: Never played it, but I did a quick wiki search and it says that it is about a guy who can control electricity. Is that what you were refering to?

Elemsky7: One of the limitations I have been adamant on since the very beginning of the idea was that he can only take himself through time. Although that brings up the problem about clothes and begins to enter squick territory. Eventually I decide on that he can take nothing living as the tt process would kill them... somehow...

Ennead: "For the second: It's seems to be a plot about a man fighting against his fate. Do we have free will, or is fate inevitable? The question is further complicated by the fact that time isn't linear for this guy." That is exactly the agenda I'm trying to push with this narrative.

As for Paradoxes, the timeline is supposed to be self contained, so he had already existed in the past, he just has yet to go back there; if you want to look at it that way. As for effects of the other's actions; I originally had him meeting a future version of himself the first time he ever tt's, although I can think up a couple better scenarios corresponding to what you said.

Ravnius: He would be stopped from killing himself mainly because of the human disease called doubt; if he made it through this terrible affliction, he would be stopped by another version of himself simply because the assassination target lived beyond that point.

I also plan on having several decades worth of age between the first version and the final version, so there is plenty of time to study the timeline so as not to forget to save himself. It's still a bit of a clusterfuck of a situation, but I hope it's manageable.

 

I was referring to the part where the antagonist of the game is actually the protagonist from the future who comes back to force you (his past self) to become stronger than he ever was so that you can defeat the evil he never could.

But yeah that is the right game.

 

This.

I would do it by the protagonists in the past getting the future traveler to reveal something about the point he travels back from and is going to, survive the encounter, make it appear that they died/failed/gave up, and set up an intricate plan to cause a domino effect which ultimately kills the antagonist at his most future point.

Which leads to a utopia.

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OR

Manipulate events so that it APPEARS that the antagonist is killed on a certain date, so the future him will come to save himself. But, instead of saving himself, he is tricked into killing himself.

Scenario: Protagonists discover the nature of the antagonist and how he is able to know the future. Protagonists (possibly fake an attack on him by disguising themselves-- the teleporter pretending to be the one responsible for the death of the present antagonist while at the same time luring the present day antagonist to the same spot. When the future antagonist arrives to prevent the death of the future self he's tricked into killing himself, locking the loop into a cycle where the future self always returns to the past to kill the threat to himself, which is himself.

The 2 protagonists (or a surviving protagonist, or a 3rd party on instructions for the deceased protagonists) fake the information of how the antagonist died, specifically the time and possibly place. Could be done by altering computer records or planting phony photographs.