In my spare time I am still working on Char Grilled, a fantasy webcomic. And, yes, that link does mean I've got a site for it up and running. Having just said that sort of means that this journal constitutes my official announcement on dA of Fatal Melon, a blog, webcomic hosting and anything-else-we-think-to-put-on-it site run by me and Will (=SplodgeOfDoom). However, that alone is not the main reason for this journal.

I am faced with a conundrum.

In Char Grilled, a character will gain the ability to time travel. For argument's sake I'll refer to that character as male. I thought it would be cool if he dissolves in a burst of coloured light when he jumps back or forward in time and then I thought of using Doppler effect-esque colouring for the burst of light. The Doppler effect, for those who haven't heard about it and haven't clicked on that link, basically means that energy waves created by something moving toward you will have a higher frequency than normal, seeing as each pulse of the wave is created slightly closer to you, while energy waves created by something moving away from you will have a lower frequency than normal, seeing as each pulse of the wave is created slightly further away. This means that a white light source moving toward an observer will appear slightly blue and if it's moving away it will appear slightly red (blue is higher frequency, red is lower frequency).

Relating this to time travel is tricky. While Char Grilled is a fantasy story, I want to make the colour choices as scientifically logical as possible. I've got two contradicting theories on how it would work:

The Blueback Theory: When the character jumps back in time, it could be seen as a deceleration in time so as the person moving normally through time overtakes them the frequency of the light increases (turns more bluish). Someone jumping back in time from your present temporal location would pulse blue and someone jumping forward would pulse red. Someone arrriving from the past or the future would also pulse blue, as they are moving toward your current temporal location.

The Redback Theory: Alternatively, it could be seen as the person time-travelling backwards slowing down everything including their rate of emitting light, which would lead to their light frequency decreasing (turning more reddish). Someone jumping back in time from your present temporal location would pulse red and someone jumping forward would pulse blue. Someone arriving from the past would pulse blue, as they are speeding up, but someone arriving from the future would pulse red as they are slowing down.

...I think.

My current favourite is the Redback Theory, as it seems to make the most sense and "red = jumping back, blue = jumping forward" is quite neat and easy to remember. However, I only did physics up to GCSE level and I'm not 100% sure I'm right on either theory. So, what do people think makes the most sense, both/either from a scientific and/or artistic point of view? Am I completely wrong? Please comment below if you've got any thoughts, even if it's that I'm thinking it through too much and should I just go with whatever I think looks coolest. I might make a poll at some point, but I'm gonna go to bed now.

Until next time.