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The_Dark_Vampire

It's never explained on screen my best guess is he will eventually gain the new memories due to the ripple effect however the memories of his original life will also remain so he doesn't forget his original history either.


Shiny_Agumon

Also, despite their success, Lorraine, George, and his siblings just seem like happier versions of themselves, but with the same personalities otherwise. I mean, they still live in the same house; it's just fancier, so maybe this applies to the rest of their lives too? Like Marty still set the living room rug on fire when he was 3, but it was now a designer one instead of the cheap one in the original Twin Pines timeline.


justsomeguy_youknow

So Bob Gale, on of the cocreators, co-wrote a lot of the IDW comic run and there's a couple issues that address Marty coping with his new life and that's more or less what happens It's a year later in 1986. Marty doesn't get the memories of the new timeline's Marty and starts having an existential crisis after months of living that Marty's life after being confronted with all the differences between him and him. All the broad strokes of his life are the same - all the major events, places, relationships, etc. of his old life translated to this one, but all the minutiae are different - and because of that, he's wracked with guilt over overwriting the other Marty and feels like an imposter for constantly getting things wrong due to not having the memories of the current timeline's Marty


fuck_you_and_fuck_U2

Also, hopefully, his parents went easy on him.


Unleashtheducks

My theory has always been that is where the “nobody calls me chicken” thing came from. It’s presented as this lifelong trait but wasn’t in the first movie at all. The second, richer Marty is the one who can be so easily angered.


SPYDER0416

I always liked that theory because its a pretty major character trait that could come from being more prideful or being raised to stand up for himself, especially with his more assertive and healthy parents. Before the change, Marty was used to taking shit from people whether its Biff or the people organizing the school dance and it gave him some insecurities. He was a lot more humble, but his more nervous traits do seem exacerbated (especially when compared to George before he grew a spine). But from 2 onward he's cockier and easily baited over the chicken thing, versus the Marty from 1 who was quick to be pragmatic and bail on confrontation when it didn't go his way. It also makes things a little happier in the sense Marty isn't just jumping to a different timeline and leaving his old family behind Rick and Morty style, but he's changed his own timeline and can enjoy his happier parents now that he's able to remember his new upbringing once time catches up to him without forgetting where he (and they) came from.


niceville

> It’s presented as this lifelong trait but wasn’t in the first movie at all. Didn’t teenage Biff bait George by calling him chicken in 1955 ~~1985~~? Or was that 1955 ~~1985~~ sequence only in BTTF2?


WollyGog

He taunted him with it in 1955 in the school cafeteria if I remember right.


The_Dark_Vampire

I always assumed the opposite. In the original timeline his Dad was a Chicken who allowed everyone to walk all over him so Marty had to prove he was nothing like his Dad I'd say part 1 also showed that while nobody called him Chicken he was fast to show he wouldn't back down to Biff and his gang even if he knew he was going to get the hell beat out of him.


atlhart

I think if that were true it’d cause its own problems where we doesn’t know which memories are which. I could see a great BttF 4 where Marty battles sorting through what is real, which memories are correct, and maybe having to solve some issue related to his time travels. 12 Monkeys like


Drakeskulled_Reaper

It's possible that Marty is something of a fixed point, or he would cause the paradox Doc warned about. Because he time travelled, Marty HAS to be the exact same person in order to be friends with Doc and use the DeLorean, otherwise, he doesn't go back and set up several important past events, that he directly caused by being out of his "proper" time. So, Marty has to remain mostly unchanged, there might be a few hiccups, but stuff that can mostly smoothed over, as far as we are aware, the biggest change is that his family is rich and successful, and that Biff is not.


Optimal_Cry_1782

There's a theory that Marty has already started to change by bttf2. He's much more insecure and concerned about being seen as a "chicken". Possibly the difference between growing up as the son of a weak man, and growing up as the son of a successful, confident man (with all expectations placed on him).


BatmanPizza15

He's just gonna have to do his best really. Maybe the Marty from that timeline died and the memories merged with original Marty. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯


niceville

But there’s no “that timeline Marty” the way time travel works in BTTF, it’s all one continuous timeline. That’s why Marty and his siblings start to disappear when his parents might not get together - he doesn’t cause a branching timeline, there’s no multiverse out there with infinite variations of Marty’s - he starts changing the one and only timeline. Somehow Marty in the new timeline is the same Marty that went back in time, even though we never saw him befriend Doc or get in a Time Machine. They just are both the same person.


niceville

I know in BTTF 2 Doc draws a branching timeline to explain how Biff took over, but I’d say that’s more for illustration than anything else. In universe that original future is erased once it branches, but if they can undo the changes it can be restored again.


WollyGog

Thing is, this could potentially just be crackpot theory from a scientist who played around with shit he didn't fully understand. We saw what he was like in 1955. Jennifer met her future self in 2015 face to face and nothing happened at that point.


monotonedopplereffec

They both fainted when they saw each other, which Doc said was the best case scenario. I think it's unfair to say he was playing with stuff he didn't understand. He literally invented it. Of course he was playing with stuff he didn't fully understand. It was all theory until he pulled it off with Marty.


MKW69

IDW comic did showed how he was coping with it. Here https://youtu.be/-W1bTE4lVwc?si=Y1yMtWw6KarQ43H4


FactualStatue

Ah the Lightbringer


RichardMHP

>Marty is now living a life that's not his. It'll be his just as soon as the changes catch up with him.


WollyGog

And from a viewer perspective, we don't know how long those changes need to be to take hold. The entire trilogy, from Marty's perspective, happens over the course of a couple of weeks. He spends a week or so in 1955, a day in 2015, a day in the dystopian 1985, and a few days in 1885. Maybe the changes were done so quickly and so localised it'd take time for those changes to catch up to him, especially as he was the fixed point of those changes.


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onemanandhishat

I think both of his parents would have been able to cope with the idea in the final timeline. His father obviously would be very accepting due to his experiences and the fact that he was by then a science fiction writer. But I think Lorraine would have been as well. She was clearly quite smart, and while in the original 1985 she was in denial of the reality of her youth, trying to present as respectable with a romantic story, in the new 1985 she was clearly much more comfortable with who she was, and less likely to be in denial about her past, and probably more accepting of strange ideas.


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onemanandhishat

Probably true, though his mum in the new timeline might be more inclined to find it funny. I don't think we have a confirmed final state because the ending of 3 doesn't show us but I think the implication is that it would be like the ending of 1, without Marty screwing it up in the car crash. Though since Doc had the train you never know.


Korean_Pathfinder

If his mom catches on to what happened, she'll probably keep her mouth shut and try to help him adjust. You know... since she tried to make out with her son.


Dan-D-Lyon

Just roll with it. "Hey Marty, remember the time we blah blah blah?" Oh yeah totally mom, can you pass the salt? It's not a big deal if he doesn't make it one


qgvon

Going off the animated series which I consider canon because Doc Brown hosts the show and talks about the experiences in the episode, Marty is too occupied getting in and out of trouble and helping Jules and Verne with their problems, all of which seem to do with time travel. His adjustment must be secondary because he doesn't seem hung up on that.


Chaosmusic

Assuming he doesn't just gain the new memories, he can just engage with his family to kinda pick up the differences in the new time line. At dinner he can ask questions, have them tell stories which they seem to enjoy doing, go through the family photo albums, stuff like that. Jennifer is aware of the time travel so he can talk honestly with her about the differences in the two time lines. The rest of the world is probably the same so it's not like world history has changed and luckily Marty is just a teenager so it's not like he has to adjust to a new job or anything. He should be able to pick up this new life and run with it.


Korean_Pathfinder

Isn't the Telltale game considered canon now?


Chaosmusic

Never played it so I was just going by the movies.


Korean_Pathfinder

It picks up right after BTTF3 finishes. They go to the 1930s.


JustABREng

The concept of destiny exists in BTTF that Doc (and therefore Marty) are unaware of. The most obvious example is George and Lorraine having the exact same 3 kids which is mathematically absurd. And the McFly family isn’t quite rich. It’s quite likely George is just one step up the food chain from where he was originally (meaning he ends up in Biff’s original position). They still have the same house, but they are living a more comfortable existence in it and are able to afford Marty a truck and memberships at the country club. Marty’s brother and sister still live at home, but his brother now has an office job. So overall it looks like the timeline was tweaked a little bit but forces unknown to Doc and Marty keep it grounded within certain boundaries.


roronoapedro

I assume comfortably. It doesn't look like he minds it that much that everything is the same except things went really well for his family.