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Hub AI
Floating timeline AI simulator
(@Floating timeline_simulator)
Hub AI
Floating timeline AI simulator
(@Floating timeline_simulator)
Floating timeline
A floating timeline (also known as a sliding timescale) is a device used in fiction, particularly in long-running comics and animation, to explain why characters age little or not at all while the setting around them remains contemporary to the real world. The term is used in the comics community to refer to series that take place in a "continuous present". Floating timelines are also used when creators do not need or want their characters to age, typically in children's books and animated television shows.
When certain stories in comics, especially origin stories, are rewritten, they often retain key events which are updated to a contemporary time. Floating timelines are used as a plot device to "explain or explain away inconsistencies in the way that events and characters exist within a world".
According to Roz Kaveney, a floating timeline is used in comics because of "the commercial need to keep certain characters going forever". Academic Kevin Wanner has compared superheroes in comics to mythological figures, and writes that the use of a sliding timescale in comics is similar to the way ageless figures in myths are depicted interacting with the contemporary world of the storyteller.
Animated media often uses floating timelines. The long-running animated television series The Simpsons uses a floating timeline; episodes showing the early lives of Marge and Homer have been set in both the 1970s and the 1990s, and the characters do not age despite society and technology changing around them.
In the Japanese anime series Pokémon, none of the characters have aged since the series began in the 1990s. Chief director Kunihiko Yuyama has said that protagonist Ash Ketchum is eternally ten years old, and that time has not passed since the beginning of his journey.[unreliable source]
The Nickelodeon television series The Fairly OddParents subverts the concept of a floating timeline in the episode "Timmy's Secret Wish!", where it is revealed that the protagonist had wished for everyone on Earth to stop aging and that 50 years has passed in the show's timeline.
The Archie comics feature characters who do not age, despite references to various time periods over the course of the series. Similarly, Hergé's Tintin comics take place from the 1920s to the 1970s, while Tintin and the other characters do not age.
Many long-established comic characters exist in a floating timeline. In the Marvel Universe, certain events drift through time to remain about 15 years before the "floating present". For example, the origin story of Iron Man always takes place in a war. Initially this was shown as the early stages of American involvement in the Vietnam War contemporary to the first publication of the character in 1962, but in newer stories the specific war is updated. Although Batman first appeared in 1939, his stories are often updated to contemporary (or sometimes historical or futuristic) time periods. Various incarnations of his sidekick Robin tend to stay young for a period before being aged up, with a new character then taking on the Robin persona, a common trend in the superhero genre. However, comic characters' ages and backstories often change depending on the author writing the story. Some characters, especially ones with magical or extraterrestrial origins, avoid the floating timeline trope by aging while appearing young.
Floating timeline
A floating timeline (also known as a sliding timescale) is a device used in fiction, particularly in long-running comics and animation, to explain why characters age little or not at all while the setting around them remains contemporary to the real world. The term is used in the comics community to refer to series that take place in a "continuous present". Floating timelines are also used when creators do not need or want their characters to age, typically in children's books and animated television shows.
When certain stories in comics, especially origin stories, are rewritten, they often retain key events which are updated to a contemporary time. Floating timelines are used as a plot device to "explain or explain away inconsistencies in the way that events and characters exist within a world".
According to Roz Kaveney, a floating timeline is used in comics because of "the commercial need to keep certain characters going forever". Academic Kevin Wanner has compared superheroes in comics to mythological figures, and writes that the use of a sliding timescale in comics is similar to the way ageless figures in myths are depicted interacting with the contemporary world of the storyteller.
Animated media often uses floating timelines. The long-running animated television series The Simpsons uses a floating timeline; episodes showing the early lives of Marge and Homer have been set in both the 1970s and the 1990s, and the characters do not age despite society and technology changing around them.
In the Japanese anime series Pokémon, none of the characters have aged since the series began in the 1990s. Chief director Kunihiko Yuyama has said that protagonist Ash Ketchum is eternally ten years old, and that time has not passed since the beginning of his journey.[unreliable source]
The Nickelodeon television series The Fairly OddParents subverts the concept of a floating timeline in the episode "Timmy's Secret Wish!", where it is revealed that the protagonist had wished for everyone on Earth to stop aging and that 50 years has passed in the show's timeline.
The Archie comics feature characters who do not age, despite references to various time periods over the course of the series. Similarly, Hergé's Tintin comics take place from the 1920s to the 1970s, while Tintin and the other characters do not age.
Many long-established comic characters exist in a floating timeline. In the Marvel Universe, certain events drift through time to remain about 15 years before the "floating present". For example, the origin story of Iron Man always takes place in a war. Initially this was shown as the early stages of American involvement in the Vietnam War contemporary to the first publication of the character in 1962, but in newer stories the specific war is updated. Although Batman first appeared in 1939, his stories are often updated to contemporary (or sometimes historical or futuristic) time periods. Various incarnations of his sidekick Robin tend to stay young for a period before being aged up, with a new character then taking on the Robin persona, a common trend in the superhero genre. However, comic characters' ages and backstories often change depending on the author writing the story. Some characters, especially ones with magical or extraterrestrial origins, avoid the floating timeline trope by aging while appearing young.