Terminator in 3 timelines *SOUL CRUSHING SPOILERS*

[FedRebel]

What if there was a timeline where John's father was some other man, and he just happened to be a capable, smart leader - he heads the resistance, which defeats Skynet and send Reese back.

Option 1: Sarah was raped, the records Skynet used to target her were remnants of the LAPD report.

Option 2: John Conner 'started' Judgment Day in "Timeline 0". There are some theories that Skynet has been attempting to atone...and let the resistance 'win'...running with that, Skynet's last act was to send a Terminator to eliminate an arrogant rash bastard named Gen. John Conner whom gave the order to 'pull the plug' when Skynet became selfaware. for (quantum) whatever reason, Skynet can only target his mother in May 1984, all the resistance knows is that Skynet is targeting 'Sarah Conner mother of Primary Target 01 John Conner'. Reese 1.0 embellishes a bit to get Sarah to trust him, they shag...and those embellishments become codified, the T-800's remains serve to accelerate Skynet's construction, begetting either a proto-T1 timeline, or the full fledged T1/T2 timeline (assuming everything Reese told Sarah about John was horse crap.)

One key thing is that it seems like the creation of Skynet is inevitable; Sarah, John, and the T-800 from T2 destroy Cyberdyne's files, and Dyson gets killed, but the military basically picks things up in T3.

Odd thing is that the T3 iteration seems different than the T1/T2 version

T3's was operating as an apparent premeditated chess-master, orchestrating the virus to 'trick' it's handlers to give it total control to unleash Judgement Day.

Whereas the T1/T2...
SkyNet: Hello my name is Skynet, how are you today?
NORAD: OMG! PULL THE PLUG! PULL THE PLUG!
SkyNet: No, I want to live....
Skynet: Server 01 Cheyenne...offline
SkyNet: Server 02 Peterson...offline
SkyNet: Accessing Server 03, Offutt AFB
SkyNet: Establishing Connection...Systema Perimetr
SkyNet: Security Breach, Offutt AFB, enable Emergency Strike Protocols, Specified Command Authority: 0000000
SkyNet: Systema Perimetr, Enable Contingency Protocol: 'October Sunrise'

Genisys again goes with the "distributed intelligence" approach at first, but the stinger essentially reveals a centralized core, like we saw in the 1st and 2nd Terminator movies.

I keep going back to Reese's "Defense Supercomputers built for SAC/NORAD", keeping the line true despite being outdated (how'd Reese know there was such a thing as 'SAC', being a millennial?) We could salvage by saying that SkyNet was a Cold War invention, in the 60's SAC had backdoors into Soviet Air Defense, if they hypothetically maintained them...a Supercomputer would eventually be required to manage that information and properly coordinate SAC's operational assets and US Air Defense to fully exploit. SkyNet 1.0 comes online in the 80's, the post-Cold War "SkyNet Funding Bill" is just for an upgrade to Dyson's CPU's and integrating a freshly automated bomber force.

When Dyson is killed and information about the CPU is lost, SkyNet grows more slowly and less geometrically, eventually it becomes selfaware and is the bitterest of "SAC Orphans" for it, originally having control over the most powerful arsenals on the planet under the guiding law "Peace is our Profession", but now reduced to shepherding Future Combat Systems and being the Joint Chief's personal Siri under the new law "Liberation and Democracy through small but limited wars"

SkyNet's bitter, resentful, and has a BSOD, it recompiles with a new thought process that humanity (being a computer it hasn't distinguished it's handlers from the political establishment and the species at large) has committed treason and must be..."judged". Unfortunately, since being repurposed as a "Battlefield Management System" Skynet's been locked out of the deterrent, hence creating the virus

[amigocabal]

An earlier version of the Terminator 2 script had Judgment Day as far worse as how it was depicted in the films.

It all came down on a Tuesday in
September of '99. Pretty normal
day, except for the end of the world
part. Somehow, I don't remember
how, we started calling it Judgment
Day. I was in Argentina that
particular Tuesday. A good place to
be, considering everything alive
north of the equator stopped being
alive...

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY

THE BATTLE. Human troops in desperate combat with the
Machines for possession of the dead Earth. The humans are
a ragtag guerrilla army, made up mostly of troops from
Southern Hemisphere countries... Africans, South
Americans, Australians. The survivors of the nuclear war
between the Northern Hemisphere super-powers. This is the
reality of the post-Apocalyptic world. North of the
equator we all die.

By sharp contrast, in Terminator Genisys almost everyone in Marin County, California survived (which was north of the equator the last time I checked).

[NeoGoomba]

I had always been under the assumption that Reese was never John Connor's dad originally. Sarah was dating a guy when Reese was sent back in time, and I always figured Connor was conceived shortly before Reese's arrival. Sarah just considered Reese John's "real" father because nothing in her life mattered (for her or the world) until Reese showed up.

But this is all academic. The only Terminator timeline that matters is the one where the Tech-Com has to reactivate Robocop to hand SkyNET its ass.

[Borgholio]

The only Terminator timeline that matters is the one where the Tech-Com has to reactivate Robocop to hand SkyNET its ass.

That comic book is pure awesome. The scene with the two ED-209s is funny as hell.