5 reasons the DCEU should not make Flashpoint movie

2. Timelines open more plot-holes

Alternate timelines have arguably been introduced to the DCEU as early as Batman v Superman with an older Barry reaching out to Bruce Wayne at his bat cave.

While timelines can be used as a way to fix the DCEU, moving forward, even ret-con necessary storylines, this may cause the continuity to become even more complex.

Naturally in fiction, time–travel is a common theme in science fiction that is riddled with lots of complex issues, which unfortunately result in plot–holes.

A good example of such timeline theories is in the Japanese anime Dragon Ball Z in the Trunks and Android saga. As narrated and authored in terms of the ‘Alternate Timeline Theory’ by Detective Q (once known as Qaaman) and MrDrProfSir, in the world of Dragon Ball the rules of time–travel are as follows:

"When a time traveler travels back to the past, he/she creates an alternate timeline that diverges off the point where he/she arrived (therefore you can change history and create an alternate timeline by changing events)."

"Once a time traveler has established between two alternate timelines, he/she can move back and forth between those two timelines without creating a new timeline branch off."

"Once a time traveler travels further back in time than another, this creates a new timeline since this would change the events that would differ from an earlier standpoint."

In this example, there are four alternate timelines:

• Timeline #1 (Original)
• Timeline #2 (Unseen)
• Timeline #3 (History of Trunks)
• Timeline #4 (Mainstream)

From these timelines, it potentially created at least three different plot–holes. One of three plot–holes involves the conversation between Piccolo and the artificial being Cell. The Cell he is speaking to (from Timeline #1) traveled to Timeline #4. He came from a timeline where there were no time travelers, so the series protagonist, Goku, is supposed to be the one who defeated King Cold and Frieza, not Trunks.

Another plot–hole is when the Imperfect Cell (from Timeline #1) mentioned to Piccolo that Trunks’ time–machine pre-set coordinates a year before King Cold and Frieza arrived on Earth. Piccolo hypothesized Trunk’s set those coordinates to let the rest of Z Fighters know that he destroyed the Androids, but that is not possible.

The Future Trunks who Piccolo is referring to is the one that traveled back to the past in Timeline #1. Cell from that timeline ultimately killed that Trunks and hijacked his time–machine, creating Timeline #3 (H.O.T). Why would Trunks, travel a year before to let the other Z Fighters know he defeated the Androids with the risk of creating a time paradox?

Another plot–hole is there should have been two Cell’s co-existing in two alternate timelines. Timeline #3 and Timeline #4. The Cell’s from Timeline #1 #2 and #4 were defeated, but the Cell that travelled back in the past from Timeline #1 to Timeline #3 should have still been alive (we are not talking about the present Cell that grew in the H.O.T. timeline. This Cell was defeated by the Trunks of that time period that returned from the main timeline #4).

Now imagine storytellers managed to craft something this complex. Flashpoint is all about time–travel and as you can see, if not charted well, it can get messy.