1 00:00:00,017 --> 00:00:07,428 Red: Hello everybody, and welcome to another very special Detail Diatribe. I don’t know why I said very special, 2 00:00:07,428 --> 00:00:11,060 this is pretty much on brand for the other Detail Diatribes we’ve done so far. 3 00:00:11,060 --> 00:00:14,776 It’s not a special holiday event or whatever. But I’m excited about this. 4 00:00:14,776 --> 00:00:19,740 Blue: Medium-special at best, but still very exciting! R: Moderately special, you know, 5 00:00:19,740 --> 00:00:26,388 in the grand calculus of the multiverse. B: Somewhere, Red and Blue are sitting down 6 00:00:26,388 --> 00:00:34,486 to record a Detail Diatribe that is the most special Detail Diatribe ever. But we’re not in that multiverse. 7 00:00:34,486 --> 00:00:39,316 R: No, we’re in this timeline instead. In case you didn’t pick up what we’re putting down, 8 00:00:39,316 --> 00:00:47,115 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 9 00:00:47,115 --> 00:00:54,229 “the multiverse problem”. And to explain what exactly the multiverse problem is, I’ve prepared a handy-dandy, 10 00:00:54,229 --> 00:00:58,843 super efficient 40 slide slideshow- B: Yes, Yes! 11 00:00:59,791 --> 00:01:06,496 R: -to discuss what exactly is going on. So, to start we must define the parameters 12 00:01:06,496 --> 00:01:11,458 that we’re going to be operating on. What is a multiverse? Now obviously, in this specific context 13 00:01:11,458 --> 00:01:16,041 we are discussing fictional multiverses, not Real Multiverse Theory, none of that stuff. 14 00:01:16,041 --> 00:01:21,057 Not particularly interesting to me. But in fiction the concept of a multiverse is essentially a setting 15 00:01:21,057 --> 00:01:26,672 that contains multiple universes or timelines, and the setting that the protagonists - the main characters - 16 00:01:26,672 --> 00:01:31,752 are from is typically just one universe out of many. A story will often introduce the concept 17 00:01:31,752 --> 00:01:36,736 of a multiverse in the context of a plotline that threatens the integrity of this home universe, 18 00:01:36,736 --> 00:01:42,282 like a bad future timeline or a threat that’s moving across dimensions or an evil alternate version 19 00:01:42,282 --> 00:01:46,829 of themselves intruding, stuff like that. It’s a very, very broad concept that covers a lot of ground. 20 00:01:46,829 --> 00:01:52,161 A lot of that ground is just fine, some of that ground is very, very bad. So let’s talk about it! 21 00:01:52,161 --> 00:02:00,009 B: This is exciting, because I have passing familiarity with some multiverse stories in kids’ media, 22 00:02:00,009 --> 00:02:02,724 like evil Danny Phantom and stuff like that. R: Oh yeah, yeah. That’s on my list. 23 00:02:02,724 --> 00:02:09,332 B: Aside from a couple, you know, instances of Marvel coming into the phase four-game 24 00:02:09,332 --> 00:02:16,728 with multiversal nonsense, I am largely an outsider on this topic and I have some thoughts, but only some, 25 00:02:16,728 --> 00:02:20,715 and I don't know how strong they are. So we'll see how that develops as we go through this slideshow. 26 00:02:20,715 --> 00:02:25,056 R: Yeah, I'm excited for your input because there are a few examples in here that I know you've got thoughts on. 27 00:02:25,056 --> 00:02:30,809 But to start off, a little bit more categorization. There are, broadly speaking, two different kinds of multiverses. 28 00:02:30,809 --> 00:02:36,025 There are many worlds-multiverses and there are branching timeline-multiverses. Many worlds-multiverses, 29 00:02:36,025 --> 00:02:41,274 that's how you cover things like magical other world-stories, Narnia, Oz, you know, stuff like that. 30 00:02:41,274 --> 00:02:47,055 The characters travel from their world to another world. You know, it's essentially just a multiversal flavor on, like, 31 00:02:47,055 --> 00:02:51,468 the old sword and planet fantasy where people would be- or like Star Trek, where you've got a bunch 32 00:02:51,468 --> 00:02:55,868 of different inhabited planets and they're all very different but the people from them can come and hang out. 33 00:02:55,868 --> 00:03:01,880 B: Yeah. I believe Shakespeare's word for that was isekai. R: Yes, the Bard himself, as we all know. 34 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:09,916 So that type of multiverse, that doesn't tend to be where the problems lie. The branching timeline-multiverse 35 00:03:09,916 --> 00:03:15,865 is a different format for these stories, where instead there is this sort of concept that these are alternate versions 36 00:03:15,865 --> 00:03:21,961 of our universe, so there might be alternate versions of familiar characters. It's like, if you go from Earth to Oz, 37 00:03:21,961 --> 00:03:27,162 you're not gonna find an Oz-version of yourself. But, like, my example on this slide is Into the Spider-Verse, 38 00:03:27,162 --> 00:03:31,361 where all of those universes are extremely different, but they are on some level all different versions 39 00:03:31,361 --> 00:03:36,476 of the same universe. There are often going to be stories that have this sort of vague ambiguity between like, 40 00:03:36,476 --> 00:03:41,839 is this a branching timeline, alternate, “somebody made a different choice and now you live in Toon Town”, 41 00:03:41,839 --> 00:03:46,576 or are these worlds with different fundamental physical laws, but also there are different versions 42 00:03:46,576 --> 00:03:49,032 of the same guy across all these universes for some reason? 43 00:03:49,032 --> 00:03:55,129 B: Just imagining, like, Edison didn't get the patent for the motion picture and then therefore 150 years later 44 00:03:55,129 --> 00:03:58,612 we live in Toon Town. R: Yeah, yeah. Obviously that's the only logical explanation 45 00:03:58,612 --> 00:04:00,529 for how Spider-Pig happened. B: Yeah. 46 00:04:00,529 --> 00:04:04,013 R: So these universes will either strongly or superficially resemble each other. You know, 47 00:04:04,013 --> 00:04:08,946 this is where you start getting things like the time plot where it's like, “Ohh, I'm you from an alternate universe 48 00:04:08,946 --> 00:04:12,628 or from an alternate future or whatever”. Those ones tend to be a little bit more fast and loose. 49 00:04:12,628 --> 00:04:18,659 And the branching timeline-multiverse is where the problems begin. Now, multiverses disrupt the story 50 00:04:18,659 --> 00:04:24,208 that they're introduced into to varying degrees, because of course, the basic premise of a multiverse of 51 00:04:24,208 --> 00:04:28,089 “Hey, there's multiple universes, yours is just one of them” is usually accompanied by the concept 52 00:04:28,089 --> 00:04:33,221 “And your universe is under threat”, and that is the disruption. So essentially the introduction 53 00:04:33,221 --> 00:04:38,702 of the multiverse can either disrupt the story a little bit, or it can disrupt the story a whole bunch.