"The - drama - of this whole series is suggested right in this last post. Will we / won't we have Judgment Day? Once that question is answered (especially in the affirmative), the drama is gone and the series is over. It's the give and take of getting ahead and falling behind that holds the dramatic interest. How and for how long will we be able to hold off JD? Should the series continue after JD, it will be a different show. Integral to this is never seeing Future John. He's a myth, a symbol, not a character. If he ever shows up as an actual character (his faint image in the last episode notwithstanding), the magic is broken and the Terminator series as we know it will end.
"

"This is very true. It's only in the unknown that there is any drama. If Skynet is going to go online one way or another - there's nothing to do but stockpile weapons and gain allies. If it isn't - John grows old and has some interesting stories to tell his grandkids.

This is why I'm hopeful for the fourth movie: they're focusing on someone elses story within the context of the machine war. John and the outcome of the war are absolutes: he will win. But what about these other guys?
"

"How do you want it to end? Should they stop at T4 or keep going?"

"SkyNet cannot be stopped by John or with John's help, as that will result in Kyle not travelling back in time to father John Connor. All John can do is pick up the pieces after Judgement Day and make sure SkyNet doesn't win in the end.

AI technology is such a big prize, people will always be working on it, they can't kill them all. Someday, an AI will be created. But all they need to do is prevent it from becoming genocidal. Either through making sure it can't access/control military hardware, or by making sure it doesn't become frightened enough to decide its only option is to wipe out mankind. But who could do that? Not someone sent from the future, not with help from the future. Sarah might be able to, but how would she do so without knowledge from the future? Without knowledge about Judgement Day, there is no need to stop it. THERE is the real problem! For them to be able to work towards PREVENTING Judgement Day, they need to know there will BE a Judgement Day... This series AND the movies would become pretty lame if all of a sudden it revolved around going to talk to scientists and impressing upon them to be careful in their AI research or the manner in which it is used, because, you know, it might be kinda dangerous?

Judgement Day is inevitable. All they can do is make sure they are ready to pick up the pieces. At best, they might be able to limit the damage. But SkyNet needs to exist, needs to build the time displacement equipment for Kyle to travel back. That at least. Otherwise, EVERYTHING we've seen so far becomes an alternate timeline.

Could that really be? That John and Sarah are on an impossible quest? In other words, Terminator 3, but then earlier in time? So they end up just preparing for the worst? The better prepared they are, the less the damage will be AFTER Judgement Day?

Is there really an alternate option, possibly involving Cameron and SkyNet, that would NOT turn everything upside down?"

"In the "logic" of time travel, you make quite good sense. I've always said, "If you need to go back in time to change something, then you have already failed.""

"Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly but I don't think there's a problem on that score. The Terminator time line changes post T2, the attack on Cyberdyne disrupting the development of Skynet enough to push Judgement Day back to 2011 and have the war still being fought in 2032; Sarah and John's memorys wouldn't be effected since they'd been given the information about the future at a point BEFORE the change occured. Cameron did tell them that date for Judgement day had changed but since John survived he could simply have told her that things originally unfolded differently, so no paradox there I think."