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In Days from Future Past, we saw how Kitty sent Wolverine back years earlier in time (1973) to prevent Mystique from killing Trask and thus stop the Sentinel program before it started.

Assuming that Kitty isn't the only one with the time-traveling gift, this could create chaos in the mutant world. Why didn't they change anything else?

For instance, Xavier could have sent Wolverine earlier in time and prevented the fight between himself and Magneto when they were young. This way, he could have prevented himself from being disabled and avoided a lot of pain. Also, Wolverine could have killed Stryker in that earlier time and avoided a lot of pain for himself.

And what about those myriad other mutants who are not related to X-men. What if one of those travels back in time and kills Xavier in his childhood? This could result in chaos in the X-men universe with multiple unexplainable and unrelated timelines.

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    This could result in a chaos in the x-men universe with multiple unexplainable and unrelated timelines. You just answered your own question. It can, and should be noted, that they abuse time travel a lot in the comics.
    – phantom42
    Oct 30, 2014 at 18:09
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    @phantom42 - So much so that they continually need to destroy entire timelines just so that their fans don't get completely cross-eyed
    – Valorum
    Oct 30, 2014 at 18:42
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    I need to dig out the quote, but there was a great dig by one of the Avengers (I think) about how often the X-Men screw with time after Hank brought the Classic X-Men forward.
    – phantom42
    Oct 30, 2014 at 18:44
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    This could result in a chaos in the x-men universe with multiple unexplainable and unrelated timelines. You just described the Fox franchise. What's the question?
    – Omegacron
    Oct 30, 2014 at 19:21
  • “Assuming that Kitty isn't the only one with the time-traveling gift” — why are you assuming that? Oct 30, 2014 at 21:06

2 Answers 2

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In the film, the simplest answer is that Pryde's mutant ability is relatively uncommon. Additionally it requires Wolverine's mutant ability (itself incredibly rare) in order to allow time travel to take place over more than a few days span. When you combine rare with rare, you get ultra-rare.

Pryde : I can send someone back a couple of weeks...maybe a month but you're talking about going back decades. You have the most powerful brain in the world Professor, but the mind can only stretch so far before it snaps. It would rip you apart. I'm sorry, no one could survive that trip.

Wolverine : What if someone's mind has a way of snapping back? What if someone could heal as fast as they rip apart?

There's obviously nothing to stop them from continually changing time, aside from the lack of motivation on the part of the parties capable of doing so. Logan, for example would be highly unlikely to risk Jean becoming un-alive or accidentally reviving the Sentinels project.

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    Logan could go back in time and make Jean actually choose him over Scott. Time travel is totally worth it to sleep with a hot, crazy redhead. Oct 30, 2014 at 22:26
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    @JamesSheridan - The internet is very clear on the subject of crazy girls.
    – Valorum
    Oct 30, 2014 at 22:30
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    I'm with Charlie Sheen on this. Crazy chicks are awesome. Just don't leave them alone with any of your stuff, and don't let them know your address, unless you'd like all your belongings set on fire. Oct 30, 2014 at 22:36
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    @JamesSheridan - Or in this case, dispersed to thin air.
    – Zaenille
    Oct 31, 2014 at 1:00
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In the Marvel Universe, of which the X-Men is a part of (Earth 10005), there is actually very little time travel. What happens is they create a divergent timeline and the original universe still exists. Even if they travel back to their original timeline, that's yet another new universe.

True time travel is something that happens only very rarely in the Marvel Multiverse. This means if that DoFP timeline was the original X-Men timeline/universe, then all those mutants who died to send Logan back actually died.

The divergent timeline method of time travel is handy as it prevents any time paradoxes from happening, except in those rare instances when someone manages "true" time travel.

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