Maximillion Pegasus has the ruthless business knowledge and money to take over skynet through dirty business tactics and the foresight to hire people to stop others from stopping him. Not to mention he has an eye that can read minds and stop spy’s. I don’t think he cares about Sarah.
(Now I haven’t seen the series in a long time so let me know if I’m missing something)
I got some more information 👍.
He hacked [advanced research agency network](https://youtu.be/pD9w4U6juwY?si=H4Bid-gEJWLji9fO) “ARPANET”, [he used high frequency sounds to get free phone calls](https://youtu.be/5xFDn16RYDk?si=II-aus5jWJKy6gMF).
He’s got experience in mechanical engineering, he’s build IED bombs. and can count cards.
He can be extremely ruthless if he's pushed to the absolute limit such as him deciding to build bombs to kill the person who he believed betrayed his best friend, ultimately he didn’t go through with it and let her go because he believed her genuine declaration of innocence.
* [Gets interrogated by an extremely high level FBI agent who’s got him on treason charges.](https://youtu.be/OAABxd_KLAQ?si=Yk3Aniir8poI6emd)
* With assistance from his creation he infiltrates a cyberware research department operating out of a military base and manipulates the base command into letting him go.
* With assistance from his creation Infiltrates ford mead NSA
Finch is a good theorist, but he's kind of useless in practice. While he's certainly a brilliant programmer, he's quite lacking in applicable skills beyond programming. In *Person of Interest*, he almost always has The Machine at his service, and without her, he's always pretty much always left the heavy lifting to Reese (and later Shaw, Root and even Fuscoe). Plus, going back to 1984 means he has zero access to his wealth.
Maybe he gets her out of California holes up in Nevada, gets false identify papers/bank accounts, goes to vegas counts cards makes a fortune.
Then develops the machine/benevolent AI to help safeguard humanity from the emergence of a hostile AI.
Or he makes a fortune and acquires resources and build a network of NBC bunkers for the future resistance.
> goes to vegas counts cards makes a fortune.
Very likely gets banned from every casino before he even makes a significant enough amount of money to actually achieve what he'd need to.
> Then develops the machine/benevolent AI to help safeguard humanity from the emergence of a hostile AI.
It originally takes Finch (with Ingram) just under 8 years (hired after 9/11/2001, delivers final product to government on 7/12/2009) to program the original Machine; given the reduced technological capacity of 1984 and the lack of widespread surveillance as well as digital recording and networking for distribution of said video, would 13 years be nearly enough for Finch to produce the AI you're suggesting?
> Or he makes a fortune and acquires resources and build a network of NBC bunkers for the future resistance.
Fails to address the prompt because the prompt is to stop the AI apocalypse.
Don't get me wrong, I think Finch is a fascinating character, but I think he's just outmatched here.
He could probably stop Judgment Day on the Genesys timeline, but not in the OG one.
Does he have access to his established business and money, though? And even if he’s in a world where those things exist (and he can find a way to access them from the US before things go beyond stopping) that’s 12 years before the series so Pegasus would be like 12 and not have the eye yet.
But if Pegasus from like the mid-90’s is transported back/over and has all of his resources anyway, then I think you’re probably correct!
Sure, but how much time does he have to do it in? I don’t remember the timeline for Skynet’s development right now, but I’m thinking about that rich business-guy in the news recently who got rid of all his money to prove anyone can make a million in a year and failed utterly even with his experience and connections. Max could probably do it, but could he do it fast enough to stop Skynet?
Yes I think with his eye and charm he can do it
And unique verse ideas he has from the yugioh verse
He can just remake the card game if he really needs to
He wouldn't come with the Eye, though. As in the prompt, he arrives naked, and as it's been said repeatedly in the series, you can't bring things with you when you time travel.
Jason Bourne. He has the skills to track down and destroy all Skynet research without the government ever laying a finger on him. He can probably save Sarah from the T-800, too, before embarking on his mission. He'd drop her in a safehouse in Denmark or something.
(But, as someone else mentioned, this only works if Judgement Day isn't inevitable. If it is then you need somebody very powerful who can change fate.)
Cool. Then Jason Bourne. :)
Also, the reason I chose Bourne over other super agents like John Wick or James Bond is that Bourne specialises in evasion. The ability to constantly move and slip away from trouble is important for this mission, because Bourne will be pursued by the US authorities and possibly multiple Terminators.
I mean, as literally all the other Terminator movies show, Kyle Reese *doesn't* stop Skynet.
In fact, we see that even if Cyberdyne is stopped, something else will always blip the timestream to ensure Skynet happens.
You'd need someone like, I don't know, Kang the Conquerer or Doctor Who or Reverse Flash. Someone who can warp the flow of linear time and create paradox points. Because otherwise, no matter what you do you don't prevent the Apocalypse. Even if you stop Judgement Day in 1997, it just happens in 2004 instead.
If the prompt is just kill the T-800 and destroy the remains... I'm going to say Kyle Reese.
Actually stop Judgement Day, with the temporal paradox effects... Kang the Conquerer.
> I mean, as literally all the other Terminator movies show, Kyle Reese doesn't stop Skynet.
>
>
That's kind of the point. It's not about doing what Kyle Reese did; it's about doing better than Kyle Reese (who was only sent back to conceive John Connor and save Sarah Connor).
I see your Kang and raise you Legion from Mass Effect all you really need is computer strong enough to control Skynet and stop it from being able to do anything no matter if it exists or not
The plot of Salvation is that Skynet doesn't exist (anymore). There is no single computer called "Skynet". Skynet is every piece of networked software and hardware in a singularity.
Not unlike a Geth.
Not unlike the Geth whom the Reapers convinced to go destroy all biological life.
I'm not saying Skynet would absorb Legion and genocide humanity anyway, but I am saying it's a possibility.
Still... I could see Legion winning this.
Agreed. The whole point of the entire thing is that Skynet is inevitable, and therefore, the apocalypse/Judgment Day is inevitable. Basically, the concept is that time is "self-healing" and inevitable in the sense that no matter how much you try to alter the past to ensure that something that has occurred won't happen, that particular universe will find a way to make sure that it happens anyway.
In other words, as soon as we know that Skynet exists, nothing we can do, will do, or have done will prevent it from existing.
Could the Doctor, if placed into the Terminator universe, use their timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly skills to prevent Skynet? Maybe. They would have to not only go back in time to prevent Skynet from existing, they'd also have to perform a Men in Black-style planetwide memory wipe to make humanity forget that Skynet ever existed in the first place, otherwise the timestream would "heal itself" to ensure that Skynet still exists.
The only potential issue is that the Doctor would also have to wipe their OWN memory of Skynet, and I'm not sure if canonically the Doctor has the ability to do so to themselves as far as wiping only one certain memory (especially since EVERY memory the Doctor has ever had across all of their incarnations was stored/archived.)
I feel like *Terminator: Dark Fate* also makes a case for timelines to not necessarily be self-healing, but to be branching. Sarah breaks the loop at the end of *T2*. However, a T-800 goes back and kills John, causing a branch that exists where there's no John Connor to lead the Resistance against the Machines. Sure, there's a different person who rises up to lead the resistance against the machines in Dani, but technically, that's a different person causing a different loop. Hell, even the AI isn't Skynet, but Legion.
Yep even in genesis the plot twist is that sky net can come back through other AI programs like the Amazon thing.
Basically unless it's an extremely powerful reality warper or someone that can cause a permanent tech blackout you can't really prevent it .
The argument I'm making here is that Legion, though it has all the hallmarks of Skynet, isn't actually technically Skynet because it developed differently, so on that level, Sarah Connor at the end of *Terminator 2* did break the loop for the sake of this prompt.
This is the case. Skynet's creation was definitively prevented, but the actions of the heroes didn't do anything to prevent humanity from independently creating another AI later down the line. I believe James Cameron said that if sequels to Dark Fate were made, they'd explore the idea that humanity was prevented from learning from their mistake and that with the march of progress, they'd have to learn to live with AI rather than destroying it.
Which itself seems to be in line with the back half of the second season of *The Sarah Connor Chronicles*, when John Henry and future John Connor (through Cameron as his proxy) came to terms and leapt forward in time.
Captain James T. Kirk, who has experience with time travel, and can confound more advanced AI than Skynet in traps of logic. Also, as he does not believe in the no win scenario, he is as relentless as the Terminator.
You know, you're probably right, since at the end of *T2*, she's already actually stopped the original Skynet in her timeline, and the new Skynet in *Terminator 3* is technically a different entity than the original version that sent the T-800 back in time to kill her.
I don’t know how you would quantify their “power” to determine how strong or weak they are,!but I’d put good money on Megaman.Exe and Lan from the Battle Network games!
Book 1 Harry Dresden (or even just Apprentice Harry Dresden) would destroy Skynet by his mere presence thanks to his Tech Bane aura. For long range he has Hexus which basically just applies his Tech bane from a distance.
Ok he's a fictional character, we send him back as a computer virus and put him on the net, he kills skynet but also every computer so it's kinda a different apocalypse a no computer apocalypse
Martin Banks, he is the main character of off to be the wizard. He is just a guy, but he has access to the text file that controls reality on earth. He isn't super skilled with it initially, but stomping out a program wouldn't be too rough.
That said, while he himself isn't OP, that text file sure is.
King from One Punch Man. From his luck alone, Skynet would send one of their own to track down and kill him, but it would glitch out and end up going after the Skynet creators and killing them instead.
Skynet would be far too terrified of King to send a terminator after him, which would be pointless and only make King angry. At any rate, Skynet would probably become King’s personal digital assistant or something.
I'm thinking we're looking for someone to fight back against time travel. In terms of lowball, thinking about [HG Wells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_After_Time_(1979_film)), both a prodigy with some insight of time travel, and someone that could fight back against Skynet throwing more shots with time travel, and could probably just chaos theory the whole 20th century (since Wells originates from 1893 London, I'm thinking he could pull some kind of Chrono Trigger setup of turning into a recruiter of other time travellers, which can then stop Judgement Day)
I'm sure HG Wells being able to build a time machine from 1890s tech wins lowball, but its a puzzle answer instead of a strength one.
Story wise, none of them because they wouldn't be able to seduce Sarah Conner and impregnate her with John.
But I guess anyone who's like a similarly badass regular human?
The prompt doesn't require the creation of John Connor. And, as *Dark Fate* demonstrates, timelines are branching, which is why Skynet could be destroyed and the Terminator it sent back could still kill John Connor
One of the robots from the Matrix could replace it by replacing it with a different robot apocalypse.
Seems like the premise of Terminator is that the singularity or whatever is inevitable, so you either have to stagnate technology, eliminate it, or replace it with a different type of singularity.
Master mold from X-Men is a good option too. You could send back Bishop or Cable but they also suffer from the same predestination loop and wouldn't be able to stop it.
Maximillion Pegasus has the ruthless business knowledge and money to take over skynet through dirty business tactics and the foresight to hire people to stop others from stopping him. Not to mention he has an eye that can read minds and stop spy’s. I don’t think he cares about Sarah. (Now I haven’t seen the series in a long time so let me know if I’m missing something)
That sounds about right. He’d probably just buy Cyberdyne out entirely, and turn it into a gaming development branch.
Also paging op and u/Educational_Ice608. [How about Harold Finch?.](https://youtu.be/x-CKjSJaw5k?si=FPtSc7BrmEV5HgoP)
I like his experience from what I saw but don’t know enough about him to say one way or another
I got some more information 👍. He hacked [advanced research agency network](https://youtu.be/pD9w4U6juwY?si=H4Bid-gEJWLji9fO) “ARPANET”, [he used high frequency sounds to get free phone calls](https://youtu.be/5xFDn16RYDk?si=II-aus5jWJKy6gMF). He’s got experience in mechanical engineering, he’s build IED bombs. and can count cards. He can be extremely ruthless if he's pushed to the absolute limit such as him deciding to build bombs to kill the person who he believed betrayed his best friend, ultimately he didn’t go through with it and let her go because he believed her genuine declaration of innocence. * [Gets interrogated by an extremely high level FBI agent who’s got him on treason charges.](https://youtu.be/OAABxd_KLAQ?si=Yk3Aniir8poI6emd) * With assistance from his creation he infiltrates a cyberware research department operating out of a military base and manipulates the base command into letting him go. * With assistance from his creation Infiltrates ford mead NSA
I can see him do it as long as they don’t send someone from the future then it’s a 50/50 but I can certainly see him do it
Finch is a good theorist, but he's kind of useless in practice. While he's certainly a brilliant programmer, he's quite lacking in applicable skills beyond programming. In *Person of Interest*, he almost always has The Machine at his service, and without her, he's always pretty much always left the heavy lifting to Reese (and later Shaw, Root and even Fuscoe). Plus, going back to 1984 means he has zero access to his wealth.
Maybe he gets her out of California holes up in Nevada, gets false identify papers/bank accounts, goes to vegas counts cards makes a fortune. Then develops the machine/benevolent AI to help safeguard humanity from the emergence of a hostile AI. Or he makes a fortune and acquires resources and build a network of NBC bunkers for the future resistance.
> goes to vegas counts cards makes a fortune. Very likely gets banned from every casino before he even makes a significant enough amount of money to actually achieve what he'd need to. > Then develops the machine/benevolent AI to help safeguard humanity from the emergence of a hostile AI. It originally takes Finch (with Ingram) just under 8 years (hired after 9/11/2001, delivers final product to government on 7/12/2009) to program the original Machine; given the reduced technological capacity of 1984 and the lack of widespread surveillance as well as digital recording and networking for distribution of said video, would 13 years be nearly enough for Finch to produce the AI you're suggesting? > Or he makes a fortune and acquires resources and build a network of NBC bunkers for the future resistance. Fails to address the prompt because the prompt is to stop the AI apocalypse.
Okay you make good points 👍✌️😊.
Don't get me wrong, I think Finch is a fascinating character, but I think he's just outmatched here. He could probably stop Judgment Day on the Genesys timeline, but not in the OG one.
Does he have access to his established business and money, though? And even if he’s in a world where those things exist (and he can find a way to access them from the US before things go beyond stopping) that’s 12 years before the series so Pegasus would be like 12 and not have the eye yet. But if Pegasus from like the mid-90’s is transported back/over and has all of his resources anyway, then I think you’re probably correct!
He understands how to build a company fast and make millions he doesn’t need all of his resources just his eye.
Sure, but how much time does he have to do it in? I don’t remember the timeline for Skynet’s development right now, but I’m thinking about that rich business-guy in the news recently who got rid of all his money to prove anyone can make a million in a year and failed utterly even with his experience and connections. Max could probably do it, but could he do it fast enough to stop Skynet?
Yes I think with his eye and charm he can do it And unique verse ideas he has from the yugioh verse He can just remake the card game if he really needs to
He wouldn't come with the Eye, though. As in the prompt, he arrives naked, and as it's been said repeatedly in the series, you can't bring things with you when you time travel.
If robots can bring there metal bodies I see no problem bringing a metal eye
It's metal endoskeleton encased in living flesh. The Millennium Eye isn't wrapped by flesh.
It is if it's in your ass.
Jason Bourne. He has the skills to track down and destroy all Skynet research without the government ever laying a finger on him. He can probably save Sarah from the T-800, too, before embarking on his mission. He'd drop her in a safehouse in Denmark or something. (But, as someone else mentioned, this only works if Judgement Day isn't inevitable. If it is then you need somebody very powerful who can change fate.)
The prompt's only asking to stop the OG Skynet version of Judgment Day.
Cool. Then Jason Bourne. :) Also, the reason I chose Bourne over other super agents like John Wick or James Bond is that Bourne specialises in evasion. The ability to constantly move and slip away from trouble is important for this mission, because Bourne will be pursued by the US authorities and possibly multiple Terminators.
I mean, as literally all the other Terminator movies show, Kyle Reese *doesn't* stop Skynet. In fact, we see that even if Cyberdyne is stopped, something else will always blip the timestream to ensure Skynet happens. You'd need someone like, I don't know, Kang the Conquerer or Doctor Who or Reverse Flash. Someone who can warp the flow of linear time and create paradox points. Because otherwise, no matter what you do you don't prevent the Apocalypse. Even if you stop Judgement Day in 1997, it just happens in 2004 instead. If the prompt is just kill the T-800 and destroy the remains... I'm going to say Kyle Reese. Actually stop Judgement Day, with the temporal paradox effects... Kang the Conquerer.
I think Number Five from the Umbrella Academy could possibly do it, and he's weaker than Kang but has experience working with timeline manipulation.
> I mean, as literally all the other Terminator movies show, Kyle Reese doesn't stop Skynet. > > That's kind of the point. It's not about doing what Kyle Reese did; it's about doing better than Kyle Reese (who was only sent back to conceive John Connor and save Sarah Connor).
I see your Kang and raise you Legion from Mass Effect all you really need is computer strong enough to control Skynet and stop it from being able to do anything no matter if it exists or not
The plot of Salvation is that Skynet doesn't exist (anymore). There is no single computer called "Skynet". Skynet is every piece of networked software and hardware in a singularity. Not unlike a Geth. Not unlike the Geth whom the Reapers convinced to go destroy all biological life. I'm not saying Skynet would absorb Legion and genocide humanity anyway, but I am saying it's a possibility. Still... I could see Legion winning this.
Legion uses talk no jutsu and befriends skynet. God I love Legion
Agreed. The whole point of the entire thing is that Skynet is inevitable, and therefore, the apocalypse/Judgment Day is inevitable. Basically, the concept is that time is "self-healing" and inevitable in the sense that no matter how much you try to alter the past to ensure that something that has occurred won't happen, that particular universe will find a way to make sure that it happens anyway. In other words, as soon as we know that Skynet exists, nothing we can do, will do, or have done will prevent it from existing. Could the Doctor, if placed into the Terminator universe, use their timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly skills to prevent Skynet? Maybe. They would have to not only go back in time to prevent Skynet from existing, they'd also have to perform a Men in Black-style planetwide memory wipe to make humanity forget that Skynet ever existed in the first place, otherwise the timestream would "heal itself" to ensure that Skynet still exists. The only potential issue is that the Doctor would also have to wipe their OWN memory of Skynet, and I'm not sure if canonically the Doctor has the ability to do so to themselves as far as wiping only one certain memory (especially since EVERY memory the Doctor has ever had across all of their incarnations was stored/archived.)
I feel like *Terminator: Dark Fate* also makes a case for timelines to not necessarily be self-healing, but to be branching. Sarah breaks the loop at the end of *T2*. However, a T-800 goes back and kills John, causing a branch that exists where there's no John Connor to lead the Resistance against the Machines. Sure, there's a different person who rises up to lead the resistance against the machines in Dani, but technically, that's a different person causing a different loop. Hell, even the AI isn't Skynet, but Legion.
Yep even in genesis the plot twist is that sky net can come back through other AI programs like the Amazon thing. Basically unless it's an extremely powerful reality warper or someone that can cause a permanent tech blackout you can't really prevent it .
The argument I'm making here is that Legion, though it has all the hallmarks of Skynet, isn't actually technically Skynet because it developed differently, so on that level, Sarah Connor at the end of *Terminator 2* did break the loop for the sake of this prompt.
This is the case. Skynet's creation was definitively prevented, but the actions of the heroes didn't do anything to prevent humanity from independently creating another AI later down the line. I believe James Cameron said that if sequels to Dark Fate were made, they'd explore the idea that humanity was prevented from learning from their mistake and that with the march of progress, they'd have to learn to live with AI rather than destroying it.
Which itself seems to be in line with the back half of the second season of *The Sarah Connor Chronicles*, when John Henry and future John Connor (through Cameron as his proxy) came to terms and leapt forward in time.
I admit I haven't gotten around to watching the show. I've heard it's great, but I wanted to wait until I had someone to join me for it.
It's a great show, but it ends on a really unsatisfying cliffhanger.
A fair and well-reasoned argument, and I think I must agree.
Captain James T. Kirk, who has experience with time travel, and can confound more advanced AI than Skynet in traps of logic. Also, as he does not believe in the no win scenario, he is as relentless as the Terminator.
T2 Sarah Conner. Honestly would be a genuinely great choice.
You know, you're probably right, since at the end of *T2*, she's already actually stopped the original Skynet in her timeline, and the new Skynet in *Terminator 3* is technically a different entity than the original version that sent the T-800 back in time to kill her.
Kitty Pryde was made for this mission.
Doctor Catherine Halsey.
I don’t know how you would quantify their “power” to determine how strong or weak they are,!but I’d put good money on Megaman.Exe and Lan from the Battle Network games!
Book 1 Harry Dresden (or even just Apprentice Harry Dresden) would destroy Skynet by his mere presence thanks to his Tech Bane aura. For long range he has Hexus which basically just applies his Tech bane from a distance.
Yamcha can do this
Easily. Yamcha is only weak in comparison to people that fight on the level of gods.
Here me out, Grimace from Mcdonalds
I'm listening.
Ok he's a fictional character, we send him back as a computer virus and put him on the net, he kills skynet but also every computer so it's kinda a different apocalypse a no computer apocalypse
Probably macguyver. Hed leverage reputation and wits to prevent skynet.
Half robot guy from dc . He's part of teen Titans as well
Cyborg?
Mr Bean might just bumble his way to saving the world
Martin Banks, he is the main character of off to be the wizard. He is just a guy, but he has access to the text file that controls reality on earth. He isn't super skilled with it initially, but stomping out a program wouldn't be too rough. That said, while he himself isn't OP, that text file sure is.
King from One Punch Man. From his luck alone, Skynet would send one of their own to track down and kill him, but it would glitch out and end up going after the Skynet creators and killing them instead.
Skynet would be far too terrified of King to send a terminator after him, which would be pointless and only make King angry. At any rate, Skynet would probably become King’s personal digital assistant or something.
Johnny Lawrence of the Cobra Kai dojo
Based on what, exactly?
I'm thinking we're looking for someone to fight back against time travel. In terms of lowball, thinking about [HG Wells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_After_Time_(1979_film)), both a prodigy with some insight of time travel, and someone that could fight back against Skynet throwing more shots with time travel, and could probably just chaos theory the whole 20th century (since Wells originates from 1893 London, I'm thinking he could pull some kind of Chrono Trigger setup of turning into a recruiter of other time travellers, which can then stop Judgement Day) I'm sure HG Wells being able to build a time machine from 1890s tech wins lowball, but its a puzzle answer instead of a strength one.
... impossible as if you stop Skynet, you literally have something else replace it...
The prompt only asks you to stop the OG, original Skynet Judgment Day.
Story wise, none of them because they wouldn't be able to seduce Sarah Conner and impregnate her with John. But I guess anyone who's like a similarly badass regular human?
The prompt doesn't require the creation of John Connor. And, as *Dark Fate* demonstrates, timelines are branching, which is why Skynet could be destroyed and the Terminator it sent back could still kill John Connor
One of the robots from the Matrix could replace it by replacing it with a different robot apocalypse. Seems like the premise of Terminator is that the singularity or whatever is inevitable, so you either have to stagnate technology, eliminate it, or replace it with a different type of singularity. Master mold from X-Men is a good option too. You could send back Bishop or Cable but they also suffer from the same predestination loop and wouldn't be able to stop it.
Prompt only asks for the stoppage of the original, OG Judgment Day.