Welcome to the challenge of August, which is going to be all about Time; mostly fiction dealing with Time Travel, but also other topics to do with Time, and the manipulation thereof.
Sometimes, the future just kind of goes to shit, and you get the “Bad Timeline”. Due to butterfly effects big and small the Bad Timeline might involve characters just leading unfulfilling lives or it might involve complete societal dystopia. Stories can revolve around trying to prevent / ensure the Bad Timeline, or just an “elseworlds” exploration of what such a future it might entail.
And so todays prompt is, what are your favorite Bad Timeline stories – whether they intersect with the “not-bad present” or not?
Bonus Prompt: What Bad Timelines were not as bad as they were made out to be, and what Main Timelines should be relegated to Bad Ones?
Extra Bonus Prompt: What Bad Timeline had the cleverest/most unconvincing causal source?
Paradox Bonus Prompt: Any bad timelines you’d like to visit – just for a moment?