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I feel like Zen'o didn't really erase all of the future timeline, but more so he erased a frame of time, which allows the present (and by association any concept of a future) to not exist. This could explain how the past can be so freely travelled to. Though I still don't understand Trunks's time machine travelling.
One of the most common time paradoxes, the Grandfather Paradox, suggests that if you go back in time and kill your grandfather so that your parents are never born, you will have never existed, so therefore how could you have time travelled?
So to suggest that Zen'o erased the whole timeline (nobody is saying he didn't) also suggests that Trunks and the time machine should've been erased, which would've made the plot of the show go far different. For one, no time machine or Trunks they wouldn't have been able to bring Zen'o back, and events back to DBZ would have been a paradox.
I understand that existence erasure in DB doesn't affect the history of timelines, but time travel itself does. However we consider destruction of a timeline as destroying ALL past/present/future.
There were 5 time rings before the Black Arc happened, the silver being the main timeline, and there were 6 after Zen'o erased the future. Even if you include Beerus erasing Zamasu creating another timeline where he wasn't erased, the net change of existing timelines would still be off by 1, unless Whis had already restored the future before Gowasu opened the time ring box, which would explain why there was 6 rings and not 5 (or 4?). But that isn't directly supported.
However, if going back in time to prevent the Black Arc from happening again is an event that actually happens, then the fight in the future never happens which would contradict this entire arc even existing, and it would also mean that Zen'o is never summoned to Earth to erase the timeline in the first place. It should also be noted that the only stated people capable of manipulating time without effecting causality are Whis who can only rewind three minutes, and a Kaioshin wearing the time ring. Otherwise, going back into the past and changing it creates a new timeline. In which case Zen'o destroying the timeline would be like "capable of doing it, and did it, but actually didn't". Unless there's some weird quantum superposition thing going on where the universe is both simultaneously erased and existing at the same time. One thing that’s for sure is going back in time before Zen’o erased the timeline doesn’t create a new one by Whis’s statements.
TL;DR: Is there an agreed logic we're applying to these events?
One of the most common time paradoxes, the Grandfather Paradox, suggests that if you go back in time and kill your grandfather so that your parents are never born, you will have never existed, so therefore how could you have time travelled?
Backstory
When we see Zen'o destroy universes (specifically using U10 in this example), we see he is capable of non-local erasure. He erased U10 from inside the Null Realm, which included all except the Angel being erased while also inside the Null Realm, even property originating in that universe was erased.So to suggest that Zen'o erased the whole timeline (nobody is saying he didn't) also suggests that Trunks and the time machine should've been erased, which would've made the plot of the show go far different. For one, no time machine or Trunks they wouldn't have been able to bring Zen'o back, and events back to DBZ would have been a paradox.
I understand that existence erasure in DB doesn't affect the history of timelines, but time travel itself does. However we consider destruction of a timeline as destroying ALL past/present/future.
There were 5 time rings before the Black Arc happened, the silver being the main timeline, and there were 6 after Zen'o erased the future. Even if you include Beerus erasing Zamasu creating another timeline where he wasn't erased, the net change of existing timelines would still be off by 1, unless Whis had already restored the future before Gowasu opened the time ring box, which would explain why there was 6 rings and not 5 (or 4?). But that isn't directly supported.
Whis's Actions + Paradox
Whis states that it is possible to go back in time to a point where Trunks's future wasn't erased, effectively having two copies of Trunks and Mai. However this is contradicted later in the Tournament of Power Arc with the examples above. If Whis could go back to a point in the timeline before it was erased, then that would logically mean that some part of the timeline still exists. He specifically states that he will warn Future Beerus to use a far better sealing technique than the mafuuba, as destroying Zamasu would just create another timeline and repeat the Black Arc again.However, if going back in time to prevent the Black Arc from happening again is an event that actually happens, then the fight in the future never happens which would contradict this entire arc even existing, and it would also mean that Zen'o is never summoned to Earth to erase the timeline in the first place. It should also be noted that the only stated people capable of manipulating time without effecting causality are Whis who can only rewind three minutes, and a Kaioshin wearing the time ring. Otherwise, going back into the past and changing it creates a new timeline. In which case Zen'o destroying the timeline would be like "capable of doing it, and did it, but actually didn't". Unless there's some weird quantum superposition thing going on where the universe is both simultaneously erased and existing at the same time. One thing that’s for sure is going back in time before Zen’o erased the timeline doesn’t create a new one by Whis’s statements.
TL;DR: Is there an agreed logic we're applying to these events?
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