Question from Chat:

[ickaimp]

Time travel question, if Kudo had a chance to go back in time and prevent himself from turning into Conan, do you think he'd take it?

Discuss!

Comments

[saitaina]

No. Because he's smart enough to realize that the past is what defines you and to change that, would change too much of who he is, and what he's done.

His life is not worth the hundreds he's saved, nor worth the murder's he put away.

Not to mention what would happen if he never met the BO, if Shiho never found him (or the drug's un-known effects), if Mouri never gained the confidence Conan's given him (or the respect from others).

He might wish it every so often, but I doubt he'd take the chance.

[ytak.livejournal.com]

I was inclined to say yes (with a few conditions) but I think saitaina has offered a good argument as to why he wouldn't.

[katty008.livejournal.com]

Early on he probably would have pounced at the chance. But as time goes on, I think he's slowly realizing that he's becoming a better person because of it. He's no longer the attention-seeking egocentric person he once was, and he's now brave enough to man up to Ran (only on certain things though - and he's not having much luck with that).

Although it is now tempting to write an apocalyptic AU where he didn't shrink and the BO were allowed to continue to grow unhindered. Like Stargate when they're playing with dimensions: it's outright stated that there are very few universes where the baddies haven't overrun everything.

Or we could just take this ridiculously literally and have Conan stop himself on the way to his house and tell himself that he should call himself Zenigata Ellery or Maurice (no that's silly). Thus, he would not be called Conan.

Which Sort?

[(Anonymous)]

Would the time travel be like 'Back to the Future'? or 'do over' sort (Quantum Leap - insert self into old body)?

Then the question is what sort of time stream are you working with, the type that rewrites the time stream (again a la BttF) or the splintering sort to which you can (maybe) never return (a la Terry Pratchett's 'Trousers of Time')?

Third question would be when in the Conan canon is the opportunity made?

If it's early enough I'd agree that Kudo would jump at the chance, so long as it would help him. I couldn't guess the odds if it was to help some other Kudo not become Conan, but the time traveler not change. That seems a little too selfless for Kudo, but on the other hand, he hates being so 'young' that he might want to save some version of himself from it.

I can't see Kudo trying to do a self-insert type of time travel except, again, in the earliest volumes of the series. Too much has happened since then. I'd like to believe he would try to prevent all the murders, help Ai and her sister and everything else, but to remember it all, affect it all AND avoid the butterfly effect with the BO? I don't think even the best eidetic memory would be enough. It would be too tall an order, just for the shot of being big again.

Only time a later series Kudo might attempt it would be that already mentioned apocalyptic scenario. Only if it would affect and prevent that present, otherwise he'd probably stick it out. Best chance of this being attempted would also have Conan physically going back with a laptop+'s worth of data for case files evidence etc to account for all the easily forgotten details.


On a side point, how about the Shonen Tantei? Not all of their troubles were instigated by being with Conan. Even if Conan came back in time to prevent his other self from shrinking, Conan might be stuck, and then be old enough to be in a different grade entirely, eh lost any point here other than what ifs.



Generally, I'd vote Kudo to not choose tampering with time. If he did, it would only happen physically, so he could bring things with him (evidence).

Personally, I prefer the involuntary time travel situation. Where the lead character doesn't know why or how he got there. This usually is the insert type as well.

Overall as a fic, this could be very interesting as a 'X times Kudo did(n't) travel back in time and Y he did(n't)' sort of things.

Cheerio,
WeatherMarmalade

Re: Which Sort?

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

Dude, you are made of AWESOME!!! \o/

Re: Which Sort?

[saitaina]

I sense many time travel plunnies have now been spawned in the minds of the writers who visit your journal Icka.

Thankfully, I am immune as I suck at writing Conan (and I will not play with Kaito time travel, nope, no way).

Re: Which Sort?

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks ^_^

Time Travels always been a favorite since I watched Doctor Who in the early 80s ^_^; But I love all forms (so long as they are done well.)

I missed one though. There's also the Groundhog Day style, doing the same thing over again until you get it right. Not exactly time travel, but it would work with the keep himself from getting shrunk routine.

Cheerio,
WeatherMarmalade

Re: Which Sort?

[saitaina]

On a side point, how about the Shonen Tantei? Not all of their troubles were instigated by being with Conan.

They probably would have died at some point without Conan to save them...though that begs the question, could they have reasonably got into any of the messes without him? They have a bit more 'jump into things without looking' then most kids, but just exposure to Conan's increased it.

Granted it's over 600 case files and I just re-crammed so I might have glossed over something, but is there any case where the kids could have gotten into trouble if you remove having ever met Conan and Agasi (that would exclude all their camping and vacationing adventures, including the Dragon's Egg case, the Spider Mansion and whatever other one they've walked into a trap)?

(Note: Excluding movie 2 or 4 [The 14th Target] where a giant helicopter crashes into the school...I can't decide if that would happen with or without Conan, despite his driving it)

Re: Which Sort?

[dagronrat.livejournal.com]

"is there any case where the kids could have gotten into trouble if you remove having ever met Conan?"

I think the first case the Detective Boys are in, they were planning to visit a 'haunted mansion' that happened to have a murderer and his captor/over-bearing protector in it. Whether they planned this in order to make friends with Conan or not, I'm not sure, but chances are they could have gotten into quite deadly peril then, even without having ever met Conan. At least imho. (The version of this case I read seemed to mention dead dog bones found in the garden so...) ^^;

Re: Which Sort?

[saitaina]

I'm not sure, but chances are they could have gotten into quite deadly peril then, even without having ever met Conan. At least imho.

Could, but didn't. None of the children were harmed until Conan stuck his nose into it. Just knocked out (remember, they found Mitch and Genta in the front yard).

And I'd have to go dig the volume up, but wasn't the 'dog' Ayumi's story? To encourage them to go hunt for ghosts? I don't remember them ever finding actual bones.

Re: Which Sort?

[dagronrat.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I last read that case, I admit. The dog part is one of the details of the case my memory is most foggy about. XD;

But I must say, apart from that case, I can't think of any other of the top of my head where the kids would have got into trouble without knowing Conan. Even the case with the Italian gold robbers wouldn't have happened without Ran to babysit them.

*shrugs* They're some dang lucky kids considering the company they keep. XD

Re: Which Sort?

[saitaina]

But I must say, apart from that case, I can't think of any other of the top of my head where the kids would have got into trouble without knowing Conan.

Same here. I actually tried to figure my own question out last night after I posted and realized that Conan really is their bad luck charm.

Re: Which Sort?

[saitaina]

And on a completely un-related note...you just broke my bloody brain!

This is why pondering time travel sucks, it's confusing at nearly 1am.

[yukitsukihana.livejournal.com]

my, such interesting answers :3

I think he'd leap on the chance; he does seem a bit reckless whenever something involves a cure.
either he'd end up getting talked out of it by Haibara (for reasons stated above), or he'd realize everything that happened as a result of Conan, and desperately try to change himself back.

[saitaina]

I think he'd leap on the chance; he does seem a bit reckless whenever something involves a cure.

That is a good point. For such a genius...he is prone to leaping before looking, especially when the BO is involved.

Maybe he would need Ai to smack him around with a logic stick first...

[kittyshinju.livejournal.com]

If you go with the second scenario for a fic you could always have it turn out to be a bad dream in the end.

With him waking up after spending years trying to fix things back to what they were and failing because it had really be a once in a lifetime meeting of the right circumstances.

*helpfully feeds plunnies that may be spawning for other people*

[honou-no-izumi.livejournal.com]

i don't know... though, I think if he had a chance at it; he probably would instead trying to recover all of the data pretaining to aptx that had been lost in the past instead of trying to prevent himself from becoming Conan. IMHO. Being a person who knew how actions and circumstance can affect other happenings like dominoes, I guess he should not risk trying to change the past.

Though, there's those times when Shinichi can act reckless. There's a lot of posibilities if you think about it.

[sekitx2.livejournal.com]

Awesome discussion... although Conan IS stuck in time... he keeps repeating the same year again and again but it's never the same ;)

[saitaina]

he keeps repeating the same year again and again but it's never the same ;)

True, but I think time is passing, just very slowly. Didn't Gosho say once upon an eon that he had started drawing Conan a bit taller to reflect time passing? *scratches head*

[sekitx2.livejournal.com]

He says so but how many winter, falls, summer, spring stories seen? More than 1... So it's more like The Simpsons.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

Or Ranma!

Crackiness abounds.

[(Anonymous)]

He'd probably do it, but he'd completely fail in trying to convince past!Shin'ichi that they're the same person (since that Shin'ichi is a stubborn little bitch >:( ), and then go home and raid his own fridge for his oranges. Mmm, oranges.

Of course, Shin'ichi would run back to find his door open after transforming into his compact mode, and the conversation would go as such:

Shin'ichi: "WHY THE HELL DID YOU NOT TELL ME?"
Conan: "I DID."
Shin'ichi: "Couldn't you have told me louder?"
Conan: *bitchslap*
Shin'ichi: :O
Conan: "Do that again, and I will willingly sacrifice myself."
Shin'ichi: "...How?"
Conan: "By killing you, of course."
Shin'ichi: "I'll be good."

- Umiyuri Papaeyra (Oh and BTW thank you for allowing anonymous posting <3)

Re: Crackiness abounds.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that the thought came from watching an Invader Zim episode, where Zim gets ahold of a temporal displacement machine and sends little rubber piggies back in time, that replace various things around Dib, creating accidents that pretty much eventually cause Dib's death.
... And rebirth as an unstoppable giant robot.
This is prevented through one last piggy through the device, which replaces Zim's brain. "Zim! Do not use this Machine! Love, Zim!"

Which brought about the idea of a rubber piggy in Conan's brain, preventing him from travelling back and preventing his change in the first place. *squeak*

HUZZAH FOR CRACK!!!

(you're welcome! Anon posting usually allowed on all of my journals. ~_^ Thank you for leaving your name!)

Re: Crackiness abounds.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I love that episode - the reading of Zim's letter is epic(ZEEEEM! *singsong*Don't use the time machine!*end singsong* Love - ZEEEEEEEM!). But Pigbrain!Conan is a weird mental image. I'm sure he's smart enough (bloody hell, overestimating him already) to make the piggy replace something else like his glasses or his shorts.


Wait, shorts? :|

- UP (I flaunt my Britishness at you. And then turn down a cup of tea.)

[fyliwionvilyaer.livejournal.com]

I"d like to think no but I know better...

Because I think in the end Shinichi wants to be with Ran maybe more than anything.... I think... Maybe right this second no... or if it was offered by say the org or something definitely not I think. (if nothing else not trusting)

But say Haibara came up with something cracky that shifted Time space continum and he that was the only way... yes I think he might.

Because while I like to think he's grown? Amnesia case kinda proved other wise... and well frankly he's been WAY too sloppy lately. Growth? Definitely... and I think when he changes back permentally he'll be less arrogant. But when it comes to antidotes and org... well frankly Shinichi can be quite stupid.

So I'd say yes, he'd probably do it. Even if it did shatter a world or two in the process and then he'd just figure "I can figure out a way to fix it later"

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes and HELL yes.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

YOU!!! *waves pointy finger of DOOM* I've been trying to grab you on chat for WEEKS and keep missing you!!!

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

I'm on limited net time (IE - no net at home). When's good for you? I'll try to swing things.