posted
I like the Trapper as the "living embodiment of entropy". I guess I like my godlike beings to be as full of wacky personality as us mere norms (ala the Greek and Roman gods).
I personally DISLIKED the Rokk as Trapper revealation ***but*** I could actually see it happening too...
posted
Except for the fact that the DC universe already has not one, but two embodiments of entropy. Destiny and Death of the Endless. I DEFINITELY would not want another "Oh, well the Trapper is Rokk" moment, but I think there are other options that would be interesting.
Nor would I want TT to be Lori Morning. Ugh.
-------------------- White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So... many... possibilities.
From: Birmingham, AL | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Basically, the Legion character I didn't name in the initial post was Rond. Honestly while reading the Legion leading up to "the revelation", I never really gave any thought as to whom the Trapper might be.
But TMK seemed to set us up for the possibility when Glorith sacked him. And that "paid off" with Rokk being revealed as the one beneath the hood. But I never really thought about who it might be. At first I was okay with the reveal because it was consistent with where Rokk's mentality was going at the time. But in hindsight, it seems a little lame, especially without more background.
Rond, however, seems like a good candidate. If you factor in his affinity for time travel, his Green Lantern powers and his being Universo's son, you could really spin an origin around him logically. We saw in the old Adventure issue how much it hurt Rond to turn on his father. Well, what if some time down the line, Universo got killed with Rond somehow having been involved? It could really have unhinged him mentally and caused him to become obsessed with manipulating the forces of time. And the more he went over the edge, the more his perceived role grew until he lost all sense of self.
It's just an idea, really, and I'm not out to trash Rond to his fans. But mental illness, in this case megalomania, has been known to be inherited from parent to child, so it's as plausible a theory as any.
I guess Coz didn't work for me because I just don't see how he could have made the jump to being a master manipulator of time. I could buy in a way his motivtions, but I don't see the means.
But if the Time Trapper wasn't really a specific dude, I think Reep's explanation is really cool!
Finaly, was I wrong about there being rampant speculation among fan circles as to the Trapper's identity before it was ever revealed? Anyone know anything about that?
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I came across this old DCMB page I had saved. The topic was Possible Origins for the Time Trapper. It was created two years ago to the month.
First post is by Eryk Davis Ester, then one by He Who Wanders providing a list of candidates for TTT, and finally two posts by me (as poster The Time Trapper.)
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester - July 15, 2001 02:36 AM
Yeah, I know the whole Rokk Krinn/Infinite Library thing, but here are some other possible origins for the robed one that I thought up.
1. The Time Trapper is really Dynamo Boy. In the issue where DB is teleported to the far future, the wasteland surroundings look very similar to the contemporary depictions of the environment that the Trapper lived in. So maybe DB somehow became the Trapper?
2. The Time Trapper is Douglas Nolan (preboot). Okay, so he could defy the Time Beacon, the Time Beacon could thwart or at least stave off the Crisis, so it may follow that Doug could survive the Crisis, maybe gaining a mastery of Time. And it explains why the Trapper keeps his face shrouded. Anyone else want to find their favorite obscure character and turn them into the Trapper? 50 pts for anyone who argue that The Time Trapper is really Tusker.
Posted by He Who Wanders - July 16, 2001 12:54 AM
The Time Trapper is (take your pick): ... Anti-Lad. After setting history right by infiltrating the Legion, he attempts to return home to the 75th century only to be bumped "off course" by the Infinite Man. He ends up at the end of time, where his fascination with the Legion causes him to go insane. ... Ronn Karr. Everytime he flattens himself to paper-thinness, his mass goes somewhere -- but where? To the end of time, that's where, and it takes on a life of its own, grows, mutates, and voila! ... Mask Man. You didn't think banishing him to the Fifth Dimension was going to get rid of him forever, did you? And he killed the entire Legion the first time, so that proves he's powerful. ... Command Kid. Every Time Trapper appearance has been one big hallucination. ... Projectra. She is so disgusted at the Legion for inducting a snake, that, well ... ... Leland McCauley. Guess money really does buy EVERTHING. ... Calamity King. A rejected Legion applicant who could cause things to fall apart -- which fits in with the idea of entropy. As he matured, his powers grew and grew until ...
That pretty much exhausts my supply of obscure (and not so obscure)characters. Please donate my points to the Home for Comics Fans Who Need to Get a Life.
Posted by The Time Trapper - July 18, 2001 02:57 AM
I take a philosophic interpretation of The Time Trapper rather than an assignment of identity.
I have expressed it before, and I don't want to get into detail, but basically, to me, no single character becomes or is The Time Trapper, yet all characters may be or become The Time Trapper.
Nor do I subscribe to any specific personality, motivation, or cosmic function for The Time Trapper, in particular TTT's supposed embodiment of entrophy. The Time Trapper has been depicted "waiting at the end of time," but this is an antithetical notion, and as such demonstrates TTT's casual creation and slapdash evolution. (Just what archetype or combination is activated with TTT? Death? Shadow? Wisdom? Nothingness? No ready assignment of concept(s) quite holds up, IMO.)
TTT's "nature" is paradoxical to conceptuality and transcendent of conceivability. No origin story of The Time Trapper is wrong. No origin story is right. Such accuracy of identity is just another glorious trap of time. Perhaps its best to ignore the funny little ? on the other side of "The Iron Curtain of Time."
[Second post with some commentary on TTT's supposed nature as embodiment of "entrophy."]
Destruction and creation are just interpretations of change, which only become "embodied" thru a personal perspective. Could anything called "the destructive force of the universe" (entrophy) be other than a projection of our personal prejudices? The same applies to anything labeled "the creative force of the universe."
Our primal desires energize such angelic and demonic archetypes - metaphysical favoritism is a vestigal tribal component of human spirituality. It is the cosmetic preferencing of the unknown.
Some philosophers say the needs and fears of the preferencing mind create the perception labeled "time." Perhaps it's all we have Time for, the only reason it exists, to keep the unknown at arm's length with masks of angels or devils.
[I'll offer this 2003 addendum.]
If Time is a cosmetic illusion to avoid the "unknown," what does that make The Time Trapper? The aggregate of cosmetic illusion, of all identity itself?
posted
Some theorists claim that time is a human invention. It probably doesn't matter, since we're humans reading a comic book with a Time Trapper in it.
I like the concept of the character, but sometimes it spun a bit out of control for my tastes. All those alternate realities - it gets to be a lot of baggage for a comic book.
Just what are the Trapper's powers?
Glorith used time manipulation powers to slow things down; she made a kiss seem to last eternity.
Time Trappers send people back in time.
There's the old stand-by of aging and de-aging, which I personally don't care for.
The Rokk-Trapper created another Legion and had them co-exist (same time/space) as the original Legion, whichever was which I'm still not certain. That's the sort of thing I find, mentally, hard to deal with.
Kid Quantum can also "stop" time to some degree. Maybe there will be a Kid Q/Trapper face-off. Maybe she will be the Trapper (hope not).
I did like the Library at the End of Time, or the Eternal Library - whatever it was called. That's not an uncommon theme in literature, the desire of every bibliophile.
Is there reallly an end to time? Can the Trapper ever truly die? If extinguished, will the Trapper just re-emerge?
posted
I like the idea of the Time Trapper being the embodiment of entropy, I would like it if we never even saw his face (actually, I prefer that he not even have one).
Rond as the Time Trapper would make that Mordruverse issue even more interesting, since Rond was the puppet master manipulating Glorith into the position to replace him. It also would've made their later confrontation where she eats him more interesting as well, not to mention the battle at the end of time since Rond as Green Lantern took part in that battle.
Btw, Kid Prime -- are you sure Death and Destiny are the embodiments of entropy?? It doesn't sound familiar to me and I wouldn't think two of the Endless would share that duty. I thought Destruction was more about Entropy (but then he quit, didn't he?)
From: New York, NY | Registered: Jul 2003
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Faraway Lad
Senator of the UP. Permanent Ambassador to the Court of Saint James
posted
quote:Originally posted by He Who Wanders: But I'm less happy about TT being the living embodiment of Entropy. As Grey said, it's difficult to hang a personality who represents some natural force. What does such a character want and why? Why should it concern itself with lesser beings like the Legion? I don't think there has been a satisfactory answer.
As for the why and what in this scenario, well maybe it has no logical reason, it simply is. You may as well ask why animals mate and have offspring, there is some form of drive inside them to do just that. If the trapper is responsible for the creation of time (see my idea of him funnelling all the energy he stores at the end of time back to the beginning) then his basic drive is to maintain this energy/time flow as any problems in the time stream could be catastrophic. Given the legions propensity to dabble in the time stream they could be the unwitting cause of much instability and the trapper would find that reason enough to interfere with them. It would also allow time based characters such as the reboot Glorith to re appear, possibly working with the legion? or maybe the trapper could send the legion against her for its own reasons.
If you wanted to give the character more personality then I would have the “force” we call the trapper needing to work at the end of time through a living (human?) host. Thus Rokk, a Controller, Rond, Brainy or anyone one else mentioned could still end up fulfilling that role. In effect they would become “trapped” at the end of time, as well as “trapping time” for whatever purpose. Think of Draal in his machine in Babylon 5?
Much as viewing the beginning of time is forbidden (as in that Guardians (Kronos was it) experiments, shown in crisis) then it is also forbidden to see the end of time. Therefore anyone breaking the “iron curtain of time” and travelling to the Trappers domain, becomes in effect stuck there and has to take the part of the Trapper.
Just some idle speculation.
-------------------- Faithfull
From: Newcastle upon Tyne England | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Very interesting concepts being discussed on this thread. Not sure yet which I find most acceptable but I do know that Rokk just didn't fit right in my book.
I understand that TT is not necessarily an "evil" entity, just doing what logically must be done in order to ensure the orderly coninuation of the time stream. In this sense,I guess Brainy or a descendant of his would best fit the bill.
Rond Vidar would also work because of his studies in Time Theory. He would eventually come to understand the importance of its orderly continuation.
Still, I would rather see a non Legionnaire in the role. There are many characters that have travelled through time or attempted to use/affect the time stream to their benefit but I can think of very few that have attempted to prevent it's misuse.
The ones that come most readily to mind that are non Legionnaire would be the Oans. We already know that they were prepared to do whatever was necessary to prevent anyone from attempting to view the beginning of time, would it not make sense that eventually one of them would take on the role of the Time Trapper?
V
-------------------- "Hey Jim! Get Mon out of the Zone!! And...when do we get Condo back?"
From: Paragon City on patrol | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I remember, also, that the Trapper has appeared in the reboot. It's been years since I read those issues, so I don't remember all the detail, except that the Trapper put various Legionnaires in alternate reality scenarios.
Can anyone refresh my memory about what TT's motivations were and if there were hints there that he(?) may be someone we know?
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I think they might've hinted that it was Lori Morning, but I don't remember how or what TT's motivation was.
From: New York, NY | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but didn't the LEGIONNAIRES 3 miniseries have an origin of sorts for the Time Trapper? IIRC, the Trapper claimed that he was a time traveler who got caught at the end of time or something.
Personally I always thought it would have been col if the TT had been revealed to be Rip Hunter, or some other 20th century time traveler.
Registered: Jul 2003
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It did strike me that there is a similarity between the Trapper and Destiny of the Endless.
I once had the idea that the Trapper had once been Destiny and did something that resulted in him (it?) being imprisoned at the end of time and being replaced with a new Destiny.
From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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