Ok complainers, this has gone on long enough! I'm sick of those obnoxious people that keep bashing Sleepy Hollow's Season 4's new protagonist, Lara, aka Molly's future vessel. For those of you who don't know, she was born from an alternate, dystopian future that was forever ruled by an immortal tyrant, Malcolm Dreyfuss, and his demon associate, Jobe. She traveled back in time, using a Season 2 mechanic, by using the Grand Grimoire. Thanks to Ichabod she can prevent all the devastation Dreyfuss created, as well as saving her mom, Diana, from being the Horseman of War. Needless to say, thanks to her, she was able to change the world for a more brighter, prosperous future. Though she had to leave and explore it during the end of the finale, Freedom.
I can understand that time travel plots are tricky, and they can be very difficult to pull through, but I'm so goddamn sick of Lara always being bashed by so many Sleepy Heads!! Part of the problem was the repercussions that Season 3, aka the Dark Age, has left from what it did to Abbie; I understand their frustrations, but ever since there was the episode, Homecoming, it was time to move on! Yes, Lara did come right the hell out of nowhere and made the story, as my friends used to say, hooky. Yes, it may be a sign the show was desperate and it jumped the shark twice when it introduced both Lara and Molly, especially while carrying the Witness mantle, but believe me...I've seen FAR worse cases than this!
Some media CAN'T be ruined just because we see someone from another time abruptly. A perfect example would be Trunks from the Android Saga in Dragon Ball Z. He came from a destroyed future thanks to Androids 17 and 18, and aside from Gohan's apparent death, he was the only surviving warrior as most of the Z-Fighters died, including Piccolo and even Goku with the latter from a heart virus. And since the owner of the Dragon Balls was gone, there was no chance to bring them back. So, Bulma constructed a time machine to send Trunks back several years to help the past warriors prepare in three years time for the invasion as well as cure Goku, despite his upcoming death with Cell.
Another example is in F-Zero GP Legend. While I hate the fact it's in an altered continuity, I liked how it shaped some events in the anime; even though I prefer it to take place after GX and before Maximum Velocity. Rick Wheeler was a gifted auto-racer from 2051, but he was involved in a fatal accident as he was chasing an escaped convict, Zoda. He slept for 150 years in cryo-hibernation as there was no way on healing him, and of course Rick received quite a cultural shock. Even though he was named the savior of the galaxy very late in the series, he still made a difference in Earth and the universe's history, while also receiving the mantle from Capt. Falcon.
Heck, my personal favorite installment, Ocarina of Time, utilized it very well! The Master Sword, aka Evil's Bane, was sleeping within the Temple of Time that was built by the ancient Sages of Hyrule. The Great Deku Tree instructed the kid, Link, to find Princess Zelda and collect the keys to open the ways to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce was located before Ganondorf should get it. Sadly, Link slept for seven years as he lifted the sword, and he grew up in a more messed up future. He just wasn't old nor strong enough to be the Hero of Time, as he was still just a boy, as the Child of Destiny the Deku Tree called him. After he lifted the curse over the Forest Temple, he was able to switch between both paradoxes by either dropping/lifting the Master Sword from the Pedestal. With that, he was able to learn new skills and get stronger before his fight with Ganondorf after he awakened the new Sages. Thus, he saved Hyrule in both ends.
Even the Back to the Future trilogy utilized the time travel cliché well, despite me hating the whole time paradox thing on eradicating the universe.
Star Trek: First Contact made the crew of the Enterprise travel back to 2063 from the 24th century to prevent the Borg on dominating both paradoxes, and they'd assisted Dr. Zefram Cochrane perform his warp speed ability using his ship, the Phoenix, in order to make Vulcans detect the signal and visit Earth, symbolizing first contact with an alien race and make a more prosperous history to mankind.
Even the Voyage Home used it splendidly as the probe was sucking up the Earth's oceans and flooding the planet all because the extraterrestrials never got contact from...some thing. So, Kirk and his crew went back in time to the late 20th century in which Spock theorized that the sound from the probe was similar to songs of humpback whales that were on the verge of extinction. With a male and female on board thanks to a biologist, Jillian, they traveled back to the 23rd century via sling-shotting round the sun and saved mankind's future; in both ends since it was also a way to repopulate the species as well! Serves man right for destroying Mother Nature, what a hell of a message on saving the whales..!
In Lara's defense, this mechanic has been used far worse than hers! I can name a few examples, such as Majora's Mask especially! I despised the game so damn much ever since I was a teenager back in 2001! There was this 3-day cycle in which Link must save Termina from the Moon crashing down thanks to the impending destruction of the Skull Kid that was possessed by the evil goddess, Majora. What I loathe about it is how the gameplay revolves around it, such as playing the Song of Time that allows you to go back to the beginning and it's the only way to save your progress! Moreover, you lose all your items and inventory, besides your Masks, as soon as you do, which means you need to farm for all those vanished Rupees, Arrows, Nuts, Sticks, Bottles, etc. Not to mention, it gets so damn repetitive and tedious when you need to restart the dungeons you've explored, the strenuous side quests, and also whatever little thing that consumes your time and adds more pressure to the player such as using the broken bank account for your Rupees!! And I also hate the fact Link must repeat the same scenarios over and over till he saves Termina and destroys Majora by MANY tense strokes of luck, just like in Groundhog Day!!
Goddammit, it's so frustrating and exhausting to go thru the same time loop over and over like in the aforementioned film, The Edge of Tomorrow, and the Supernatural episode, Mystery Spot by the mischievous fiend, Gabriel.
What about in Sonic 06!? For starters, we got Silver the Hedgehog, a poorly-developed character who lives in a fiery future thanks to Iblis, the demon opposing Chaos from Sonic Adventure as well as half of the obscure, supposed God of Time, Solaris. Silver does go back in time to prevent the past from being ruined via Chaos Control, but in the end he's always being manipulated and deceived by the second side of Solaris, Mephiles; aka the Dark or the Devil! The time travel mechanic is absolutely atrocious, even when it first began when the Duke of Soleanna tried and failed to use the Sun God to control time, and there's no explanation for it, in order to reverse it and save his wife who had died from an unknown illness. What's worse is that the experiment went awry and Solaris split into two halves, Mephiles and Iblis. Even still, if his f***ed-up daughter, Elise, cried, Solaris would get released and the world would be destroyed! Despite the many time jumps from the future, past, or present, the story is so overwhelming in between every paradox! Even the asinine concepts of Solaris, Elise, Mephiles, Iblis and Silver! Though Silver got better in later games, and Mephiles was an intimidating villain; even though the latter should've stood alone!! And Blaze shouldn't have anything to do with it either!
And on another subject, Raiden has witnessed the "Armageddon" as every benevolent mortal has died, though he had the chance to go back with the words, "He must win," which gives an unclear message as to who. This did take us back to the events of the original trilogy, but the results were so pointless anyway. Also, Raiden has done more harm than good to the mortals and the realms he tried to save, and does a pathetic job doing it! Shao Khan has killed nearly every hero, excepting Raiden, Sonya, and Johnny. He lets every realm run amok destroying each other, and 9, X, and II began a more worse future with no peace in sight!! Then, Nightwolf comes along as DLC from a different time period as he hadn't died at all, as did the poster boys Scorpion and Sub-Zero... I don't want to go into details cause I can give a s*** less about 'em!!
I never understood how/why there was this story, Rip Van Winkle, which was related to The LEGEND of Sleepy Hollow since they were both created by Washington Irving. Rip was a soldier and he went to a tree and rested; he woke up about a century later and wound up in a world in which only ONE person recognized him!! I can NEVER defend this story as it wasn't told very well. The next time you think of Lara and Sleepy Hollow, consider THIS first!
You want another example? How about both Star Trek and Marvel! Both series are so damned convoluted and confusing as they use soooo many alternate universes and time jumps, it's not even funny! I mean, seriously, there were so many incidences in which it's used poorly, and I can only name a few: such as the pisspoor, unclear plot of Avengers: Endgame, or so many episodes in the Star Trek canon regardless on what Generation it is! The only saving grace are the Star Trek movies, as well as the finale of Voyager and TNG; that's about it! I hadn't watched a lot of Marvel nor Star Trek, but I'm certain there's millions of examples if you wanna go for the complete canons which're FAR too much for me to even fathom!!
Even worse was in GP Legend; where late in the show, Black Shadow stated that he traveled back in time and encountered Zoda in 2051 and made him kill Rick as he was a gifted racer, and the demon was too afraid of the savior's coming, as he knew he has skills that can rival him. He also resurrected Miss Killer/Haruka for that reason too. This was the reason he recruited Zoda, from another time, and reawakened him five years sooner than Rick. This...did NOT make any sense, especially since it's related to F-Zero's main timeline...
Chrono Trigger may be alright, but I hadn't seen very much. Nevertheless, all those time travel jumps are various and just as complex in order to prevent Lavos from destroying the world. Final Fantasy X warped the whole time travel mechanic, as they kept claiming Tidus traveled 1000 years into the future, when in reality he traveled to another altered DIMENSION!! Consider it like The Matrix instead of comparing it to two different times, cause it's NOT!!
And don't. Get me. STARTED with the most asinine educational game, Mario's Time Machine!! Even Mario is Missing did a fair job on the scholastic aspect, but the questions there were difficult, the traveling is repetitive and long, and...well, what's the difference IF you were to go thru time anyway??
Heck, I still can't understand Fanfictiondreamer's strategy on using time travel either. While it's cool Lisa Simpson can contact and bring Capt. Falcon to the past, there were numerous aspects that're so overwhelming and nonsensical, especially in The Ultimate Story series, as well as Another Sitch in Time during the Ratchet/Kim Possible Chronicles. Like, there was this aspect named the Realm of the Past and a devastating phenomenon called the Rifter...It's sort of like say a black hole that's set to destroy all worlds in its wake. In this realm, some worlds were put into this nexus, or alternate dimension, in which some worlds were saved and the citizens remain immortal and ageless; I guess it's a way for FFD to preserve these obsolete worlds in her memory before they're ruined and forgotten, but I wish she could clarify this if she should move her projects forward. Another example is in Ultimate Story 3: Aide from the Past; I can't describe this since it's the most convoluted mess of multiple franchises I don't even know! I can't process why it's called that anyway, nor the fact that The Realm of the Past was introduced in Ultimate Story 2... I'm not her, so I can't read her mind, nor understand the time travel aspects she has in store for her everlasting series of those overwhelming plots...
And to make matters even WORSE, all those concepts were made BEFORE Lara, and the series, were created!! And I had encountered them all excepting FFD and The Ultimate Story BEFORE I even came across her and the underdog!! Haters are gonna hate, so f*** them all!!
In closing, I think people are going too far on what they think of Lara Thomas. To me, she's not bad to the plot at all, and she's a new Witness; a more promising, experienced candidate as well. I mean, Lara's concept and involvement was a bit unexpected, but still rather simple. I feel that Ichabod should pair up with her since they seem to be the same age in terms of looks and time, and they seem more fitting. And why not? They're both Witnesses, Lara traveled back using the dangerous Grand Grimoire, while Ichabod slept for 232 years, and they both made an enormous difference! Within only 3 of the last episodes, Lara was successful on saving both time periods and I think I did a decent job giving her more development in my stories, even the Missing Episodes. I just feel fans are bashing her and are being FAR too harsh than what she, and her actress Seychille Gabriel, truly deserve. Just keep in mind, blind bats, that there are WAY worse concepts of time travel and pisspoor plots out there, even BEFORE she had been introduced into the underrated series. I will defend her any day and everyday, because I happen to be a devoted fan of her.