Fictional time travel has all kind of rules, but in the majority of cases the conflict comes from the travelers seeking to avoid (or cause, or stop somebody else from causing) a paradox.
There's another set of rules, though, and those say that the timeline will repair itself. There's two approaches to this.
One says that if you try to shoot Hitler, your gun will jam. That is to say, the universe won't "let" you commit the act which would cause the paradox.
The other says that if you shoot Hitler he will simply be replaced.
And the latter may have support in science based on math done by an Australian student named Germain Tobar.
Tobar's theory is that time travelers can do whatever they want...but it will also be futile. If somebody from 2100 travels back in time and tries to stop the spread of COVID-19, all they will do is change how it spreads.
Which doesn't make for nearly as much conflict in fiction unless you make your characters ignorant of the real rules.
But if time travel is ever invented, this would explain why nothing ever changes, wouldn't it.
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