Barry asked Daniel Price:

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Daniel Price Hi Barry,

You ask a very good question. I probably could have explained it better in "The Song of the Orphans." Let's start with your specific scenario: if a Pelletier goes back in time and kills a direct ancestor, all they've done is create a new branching timeline in which that ancestor is dead. There are no Future Pelletiers in that chronology who can look back to the past and say "Hey, someone's trying to prevent us!" They simply don't exist. End of story.

Also keep in mind that the Pelletiers have a much different perception of time than we do. They share the same consciousness as all their alternate selves, so there's never an Azral vs. Azral conflict. If one of them has to steal a resource from the other one's timeline, they both perfectly understand the reasons for it and they both readily accept it. It's all about the greater good.

But people with our own limited view of time would definitely be more selfish about screwing with alternate chronologies, which would most certainly create self vs. self issues. To see how that kind of scenario would play out, you should read "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch. That book is crazy in all the best ways.

Hope that answers your question, Barry!

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