Gatchamania.net - Print: Timeline troubles...

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Posted by Madilayn on 15-05-2010 at 23:29:

Timeline troubles...

I just re-watched the two "Sky is Falling" episodes and just got completely kerflummoxed.

I refuse to believe that, within the last five episides, that Mark is still only 18 - or even nearly 19 - as the statement puts him. Anderson says that he was 4 when Cronus took off, and that was 14 years ago.

Now - I can believe 18 at the beginning of the series, but even if we say that Mark's going to be 19 the next day (after the statement is made) and saying 24 months for all the attacks, it seems a little outlandish.

Yes - all right. It's all outlandish - but timewise.

I can't see that there would be more than one Spectran attack per month - just logistics of building a mecha, travel from Spectra etc., tell me this.

So - by episode 80 at one attack per month, we hve 80 months - which is about 6.5 years. And if he's 18 at tht time, it makes Mark 14 at the start!!

Even if we allow for one two-parter before then, it still puts it at about the same timeframe.

I can understand an interplanetary war dragging on for that long - look at WWI, WWII and Vietnam - not to mention the current Gulf conflicets - but I just can't buy 14 being the age of the team when they start fighting.

On the other hand - doing these calculations has been an eye opener and much "hmmmm" for fic writing for me.

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Posted by amethyst on 15-05-2010 at 23:38:

On the other hand, if Spectra is rushing to complete their mecha's and is launching an attack a week, then that fits into the time and allows for their lack of success, too. Their trying to win the war based on quantity of attacks rather than quality.

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Posted by Becky Rock on 15-05-2010 at 23:52:

Maddy, I've thought about that many times. In my fics, I've always had the team older because I don't care how much training you've received, a teenager (13-17) isn't going to be mature enough to face what the team faces.

You also have to take into account technology and resources. Spectra may have the technology to build a mech every month or even every week, but would they have the resources? Maybe if they stopped attacking Earth, their planet would survive.

I read once some billionaire wanted to build a 'city ship' where 50,000 people would live. It was estimated every steel mill in the world's output for a year would be needed to accomplish it. That would mean no cars, no bridges, no buildings, nothing else on the planet that needed steel could be built for a year.

I believe its more likely the war takes years and the timeline we're using in the IF is more realistic.

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Posted by amethyst on 16-05-2010 at 00:03:

There's one thing about timelines, almost always the writer bungles it in one way or another, unless the timeline is so short it is nonexistent. I've poked holes in the timelines of Faulkner and other published writers.

In TV, movies, and plays it is easy to do. Let's use M*A*S*H for an example with Alan Alda and Loretta Swit, the only two actors from beginning to end. The TV show outlasted the war by well over a decade, the actors aged, but by the timeline, the characters wouldn't have.

Mel Gibson was way too old to play Hamlet who theoretically should have been between the ages of 15 to 25 (In an academic exercise it was pinned down closer to 20, if I remember correctly, but that was a few years ago).

In the Harry Potter series, JK Rowing couldn't keep the ages of the Weasley boys straight. By what she originally said in an interview, Harry would have gone to school with all of them. But by what she had written, Bill and Charley should have been considerably older than the others.

Therefore the beauty of fanfiction is we can bend timelines and still have it be believable to most readers so long as the story itself is believable.

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Posted by Reboekah on 16-05-2010 at 00:51:

I'm sure St. James will correct me if I a mis-remembering... but I think the Gatchaman timeline for the original series was pretty much "real time" - in other words, a week (or thereabouts) between attacks.

No one ever claimed it was going to make sense! This is entertainment. Shrug

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 16-05-2010 at 03:25:

Jusat do whatever works for your fic, Maddy, and no one is going to fault you! Huggles

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Posted by tatsunokofan on 16-05-2010 at 04:07:

Hi all!

quote:

I think the Gatchaman timeline for the original series was pretty much "real time" - in other words, a week (or thereabouts) between attacks.

That's correct. The few time references that we get during the run of the series indicate that the amount of time that had passed essentially matched the passage of time in the real world since the series had began.

As far as the "young" age of the characters is concerned, and the believability of those ages in regards to what the characters do, there's something that needs to be kept in mind: This was a show aimed at young kids. To young kids, someone in their teens seems very old and mature, while someone in their 20s or 30s seems ancient. By placing the Ninja Team members in their teens, they made them a believable age for their target audience, if not for those of us who are now old enough to be their parents.

James

Posted by amethyst on 16-05-2010 at 05:13:

If I can add on to that thought on age, James.

Realistically Jinpei would have been too young, and so would have Jun (of course her gender would have precluded her at the time). However, many countries, including the US have sent boys as young as 17, and some even younger, off to war; therefore the ages of Ken, Joe, and Ryu are not that disproportionate from reality, but still serve the purpose of being you mentioned.

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 16-05-2010 at 11:02:

And the BotP writers, in this case, kept to the ages of the original Gatch episodes.

And BotP, like Gatchaman, was directed at young children. G4 was essentially a member of the target audience (or a little older than said audience).

If we keep to the idea that the war with Spectra created special circumstances, then we can have a team of soldiers trained since very early childhood. Said team could see action at the relatively tender age of 17/18 years.

In previous centuries, children of the noble classes spent their lives in training for their duties, which included warfare. They might not be able to read very well, but the boys could kill before their voices cracked.

And, as Amethyst said, the beauty of fanfiction is that we can 'correct' these errors in the timeline.

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 16-05-2010 at 15:36:

In BOTP they specifically mention that the Team has been 'trained since birth' and of course they have the cerebonic implants which can explain any 'overly-skilled' abilities they possess.

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