Time travel is one of my favorite themes be it in dramas or
novels. But the problem with most of the time travel dramas I’ve seen is they
don’t really satisfy. I find most of their endings unsatisfactory.
A good ending is the most important thing for me. I won’t
complaint much about less than coherent storyline in the beginning or in the
middle of a drama or both as long as they don’t give me a crappy ending.
But for time travel’s theme besides a good ending it is
mandatory for the writers to sell the logic that is being used in their story
to the viewers. I need to believe in, agree with or at the very least not fully
against what is being shown to me.
Compare to time travel dramas, time travel novels are
definitely better. Dared to Dream by Tammy Hilz Mc.C and A Knight in Shining
Armor by Jude Devereux are examples of time travel story that is beautifully
and cleverly written.
Perhaps that is what is wrong with time travel dramas. They
are not strong enough in the story department because they probably don’t have
enough time to write stories that are captivating and making sense.
Delivering a time travel story that makes perfect sense is
not an easy thing to do since time travel itself is an illogical theory.
Fortunately for the writers, I don’t need to be convinced
that time travel is possible because despite knowing that it’s one of those
things that will never be no matter how many people say ‘nothing is impossible’,
I love the idea of time traveling.
But loving the idea doesn’t mean I buy it.
If we could move backward in time or move forward to the
future things will continuously change and as a result we’ll lose the present
as we know it. We’ll be trapped in a never ending circle.
However, I think the biggest argument against time travel is
death.
If time travel is possible we could cheat death with our
time machine. We could either go backward ten thousand years (giving ourselves
extra ten thousand years) or go forward a thousand years (escaping the time of
our own death).
If time machine exists it will become the hottest stuff on
the market. Everyone wants to escape death. Everyone wishes to undo something
in their pasts. Everyone is eager to know what awaits in the future.
We’ll have people traveling back and forth from the future
and the past changing this and that. Time will lose its meaning. Even life
itself will lose its meaning.
Mistakes are not something to be regretted and undo but they
are valuable lessons to be learned. Death is not something to be feared and
played with but it is something to be used as a reminder that time is priceless
and that we should be prepared for what’s to come.
Time traveling is the most selfish and destructive act a
person could do to other fellow human beings.We might not know how our decision to turn left instead of right at a cross road affects the life of others but they do. Everything is
interconnected. So, changing one little thing in one’s life will also change
the life of others.
One of the best time travel dramas I’ve seen so far is Nine
Times Time Travel. I love almost everything about it. I love the way it shows
how the past relates to the present. And I love how it shows that time traveling
changes the lives of those around the male lead.
Despite its happy ending (sort of), Nine Times Time Travel
could be used as arguments why time travel is something that should not be done
(the lead travels back in time to bring back his dead big brother to life).
Just imagine if some evil genius billion years from now
decides to bring back Hitler or Sadam Hussain or whoever the evil figures in a
distant future to life and creates an Evil Forever Club. *shudders*
In a zero chance that time machines could be invented, time
traveling should be outlawed now.
Having said that, no matter how illogical and dangerous it
is, time travel is a fascinating idea. Nine Times Time Travel does an excellent
job at delivering a good story. It is also succeeded in ending the story in a
good way.
Ending a regular drama is a tricky thing but ending a time
travel drama is even trickier. The Rooftop Prince is a good example of the
messed up ending. I love that show but watching its ending I once again
experienced the WTF moment that I experienced when watching the end of Lovers
in Paris
I’m not a fan of reincarnation thing (personally I think it’s
the easiest way out for lazy writer) but since it is the most common tool used
in a time travel story I never complain. But what happens in Rooftop Prince is
not even that.
The final OTP is not the one we watch and root for the whole
series. The OTP is not the ones who fall in love with each other.The heroine ends up with a guy who happens to have the same
face with the guy she falls in love with. While the hero ends up with the
corpse of a woman who has the same face with our heroine.
Not exactly a happy ending.
Now, let’s talk about the latest Korean time travel drama,
Mirae’s Choice or Marry Him if You Dare airing on Monday-Tuesday. It’s too early to say whether I’m going to love this show or
not but so far (Episode 3) I totally love it.
Unfortunately, this show brings
forth the biggest problem that I have with time travel: Future Mirae meets the
current Mirae saying that I’m you.
I is I. You is you. When I meet you it becomes us. You get
what I’m trying to say? For me to be me, there should only be one me. For I to
be I, there should only be one I. If there are seven
Is, say Monday I, Tuesday I, Wednesday I, Thursday I, Friday I, Saturday
I and Sunday I who have a meeting in a room, they should have the same feeling
on whatever issues being discussed and they should also think alike.
If they don’t have the same thoughts, don’t have the same
feelings, don’t know what’s inside the minds and hearts of the other persons,
they are not the same person.
Okay, I’ll stop now because I can feel the headache is
coming. I just hope you understand that for me I is I. Although there are
people who look like I they are not I.
In Nine Times Time Travel, the male lead who tries to cheat
his own death by traveling back in time and ends up dead anyway leaving his
bride at the altar broken hearted and me crying like a baby is the ‘I’ who I
watch and root for.
That’s it. This talking about I meeting I drives me crazy. I’ll
go and watch Marry Him if You Dare Episode 4 to cure my headache. Hopefully, it
won’t give me another ache to talk about Is.
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