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Originally Posted by Xandax  Well, the paradox generally only is there to illustrate the abstract issues with "time-travel", its literal aspect - "grandfather" - is basically not important. |
It depends on how a game or a movie or a novel would choose to tackle the time-travel, a common sci-fi theme. The classical Grandfather paradox denies that anything can be changed in the past, because the present is already written in a certain way. By the same token, if you are able to travel into the future, it means the future is already written in a certain way and whatever you do in the present is not going to change it, because your actions are predetermined and your free will is illusory (hard determinism in all its glory). In other words, time-travel (and a prophecy/foretelling) is possible only in the deterministic system where the original hard copy of the past, present and future is already filed and secured by some higher-ups. However, one of my favorite movies, Back to the Future,
handles the issue quite differently. I can also refer to the movie Timecop. Both Isaak Asimov and Ray Bradbury used time-travel to alter history in their novels as well. Their approach defies the Grandfather paradox entirely. You actions in the past can radically change the present: when you return, you encounter a different world.
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Originally Posted by Xandax I wouldn't go that far, simply because even though you in the game couldn't change the history, it says nothing about changing the future or changing current events. By slaying the Grandmaster, one might have changed the future because those events could have been set in motion by the "perfect humans" the Grandmaster tried to invent or other elements.
But that is all academic anyways, all we have to deduct from is the game itself, and the game indicates is that the Grandmaster and Alvin are the same  |
If we assume that Alvin is unkillable due to the grandfather paradox logic, we accept the hard deterministic view. That means whatever happens in Temeria is predetermined. Therefore, the slaying of the GrandMaster is predetermined. Geralt is just fulfilling his "destiny", even if he does not believe in destiny. The Ice Age is predetermined. It was foretold, actually.
I agree that The Witcher does not give us any definite answers, only a few hints. A coherent explanation might not even exist, as far as we know.