In a satisfying but horrifying twist,Terminatorlore just came full circle,turning the John Connor era into a twisted time loop. The reveal is the latestTerminatortwist that sees the future influencing the past, but this time going all the way back to the events of the original 1984 movie.
John Connor’s Resistance Inspired Skynet’s Time Travel Assassinations
The Terminator Franchise Becomes a Twisted Ouroboros
In today’sThe Terminator #9- from Declan Shalvey, Joe Mulvey, Colin Craker and Jeff Eckleberry - readers witness an elite Resistance teamgoing back to Judgment Daywith plans to sabotage Cyberdyne and stop Skynet before it ever exists. Sadly, the team are met by a Terminator who has been in place for years - Skynet’s contingency plan in case anyone comes after it in the past. However, as the Terminator learns the Resistance’s plan,it utters three horrifying words.
Injured, the Resistance fighters explain that their plan was to"smother the baby in its crib,“with the Terminator replying,“Novel strategy, noted.“These three words imply that Skynet’s entire plan to kill Sarah Connor was inspired by the Resistance’s own mission, kicking off the events of the first movie. It’s typical ofTerminatorlore that the events of the past and future are tangled up together, giving the machine/human conflict no true beginning or end.
Terminator Emphasizes Its Biggest Theme
Humanity’s End Comes At Its Own Hands
This isn’t the first time the future has informed the past inTerminatorlore - famously, thedamaged arm of the original T-800was studied and used to develop Cyberdyne’s neural net processor, withTerminator tech essentially inspiring itself. However, in this case, it’s emphasized even more that what seemed like Skynet’s evil, calculating nature was just it copying the tactics of the humans who traveled back in time to destroy it.
InTerminatorlore, Skynet is presented as inevitable not because it must be, but because humanity can’t stop itself creating the ultimate weapon. No matter who dies or what changes, the march of ‘progress’ continues, turning the apocalyptic Judgment Day into a foregone conclusion.Skynet is something humanity does to itself, even in the fine detailslike the AI’s seemingly inventive time travel tactics.
Skynet and humanity are trapped in a cycle where each makes the other stronger - Skynet learns from human tactics whilethe Resistance reprograms Terminatorsto fight on their side. It’s an ouroboros that neither side is capable of fighting its way out of, as every victory and loss only reinforces the cycle of violence. Sadly, that’s a lesson that neither Skynet nor humanity are capable of learning, turning the entirety ofTerminator’s timeline into a battlefield.
