Red: Hello everybody, and welcome to another very special Detail Diatribe. I don’t know why I said very special,
this is pretty much on brand for the other Detail Diatribes we’ve done so far.
It’s not a special holiday event or whatever. But I’m excited about this.
Blue: Medium-special at best, but still very exciting! R: Moderately special, you know,
in the grand calculus of the multiverse. B: Somewhere, Red and Blue are sitting down
to record a Detail Diatribe that is the most special Detail Diatribe ever. But we’re not in that multiverse.
R: No, we’re in this timeline instead. In case you didn’t pick up what we’re putting down,
the subject of today’s Detail Diatribe is something that I have been mulling over for a while now, and I like to call it
“the multiverse problem”. And to explain what exactly the multiverse problem is, I’ve prepared a handy-dandy,
super efficient 40 slide slideshow- B: Yes, Yes!
R: -to discuss what exactly is going on. So, to start we must define the parameters
that we’re going to be operating on. What is a multiverse? Now obviously, in this specific context
we are discussing fictional multiverses, not Real Multiverse Theory, none of that stuff.
Not particularly interesting to me. But in fiction the concept of a multiverse is essentially a setting
that contains multiple universes or timelines, and the setting that the protagonists - the main characters -
are from is typically just one universe out of many. A story will often introduce the concept
of a multiverse in the context of a plotline that threatens the integrity of this home universe,
like a bad future timeline or a threat that’s moving across dimensions or an evil alternate version
of themselves intruding, stuff like that. It’s a very, very broad concept that covers a lot of ground.
A lot of that ground is just fine, some of that ground is very, very bad. So let’s talk about it!
B: This is exciting, because I have passing familiarity with some multiverse stories in kids’ media,
like evil Danny Phantom and stuff like that. R: Oh yeah, yeah. That’s on my list.