Talk:Episode CI/@comment-28612291-20170521193125/@comment-26069379-20170522025628

Time travel can be complicated/tricky/confusing to work with in a storyline. For some it would create an alternate timeline split off from the very moment there by making it one possible future. For other stories the timelines are more linear and constrained thereby making events in the past directly influence the future. Samurai Jack follows a linear timeline as Ashi simply vanishes into thin air, as the future she was born from no longer exists due to Aku being destroyed in Jack's present timeline rather than persisting.

Two series that touch on working with timelines is Dragon Ball and Red Alert. (THIS IS VERY LONG AND QUITE CONFUSING, I apologize in advance)

The Red Alert series from Westwood focuses on the consequences of time travel with a linear timeline. Red Alert 1 has Albert Einstein create a time machine in 1946 which he uses to go back and kills Adolf Hitler just after his release from prison in 1924. Einstein hoped Hitler's removal would prevent the historial rise of Nazi Germany and World War 2, and it did, except without Nazi Germany the Soviet Union was allowed to grow in far more powerful and cause an alternate World War 2.

Red Alert 2 follows this again in it's expansion Yuri's Revenge in which a time machine is again used to go back again, this time going back into middle World War 2 again (as in the first game) with the objective of destroying Yuri's mind control machines during the war BEFORE they can be constructed and activated in the future.

Red Alert 3 does this again with the Soviets designing their own machine and they go back in time and they kill Albert Einstein so he cannot aid the allies in the war. His death results in nuclear weapons never being invented allowing Japan to rise up as a third super power creating a new three way world war.

For working with alternate timelines, Dragon Ball Z has a good example with Future Trunks and Cell. It's difficult to explain completely but there are effectively 3 timelines. The main timeline where most of the series takes place from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Super, Future Trunk's timeline where Earth is in shambles and most of the characters are dead and Cell's timeline which is similar to Future Trunk's only he killed his version of Trunks and traveled back in time. (Future Trunk's timeline version  of Cell approaches Future Trunks at the end of the saga intending to do the same thing but unline his counterpart he is killed instead of succeeding.)

Trunks comes from a timeline where Earth is in complete ruin and most of the characters including Goku are dead because of the Androids. Cell comes from a very similar timeline but in this one the Androids have already been destroyed so he kill's his version of Future Trunks for his time machine to go back in time.

After Future Trunks returns to his own timeline at the end of the saga, nothing changes for his timeline. Everyone is still dead and most of the Earth is in ruins. He also doesn't change in personality at all in comparison to his present self who grows up to be somewhat of a rude brat. Likewise Cell does not cease to exist when his present version is vaporized by Krilling and Future Trunks when they destroy the lab. Neither does his counterpart cease to exist in Future Trunk's timeline.