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Red: Hello everybody, and welcome to another very special Detail Diatribe. I don’t know why I said very special,

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this is pretty much on brand for the other Detail Diatribes we’ve done so far.

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It’s not a special holiday event or whatever. But I’m excited about this.

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Blue: Medium-special at best, but still very exciting! [br]R: Moderately special, you know,

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in the grand calculus of the multiverse. [br]B: Somewhere, Red and Blue are sitting down

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to record a Detail Diatribe that is the most special Detail Diatribe ever. But we’re not in that multiverse.

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R: No, we’re in this timeline instead. In case you didn’t pick up what we’re putting down,

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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

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“the multiverse problem”. And to explain what exactly the multiverse problem is, I’ve prepared a handy-dandy,

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super efficient 40 slide slideshow-[br]B: Yes, Yes!

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R: -to discuss what exactly is going on. So, to start we must define the parameters

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that we’re going to be operating on. What is a multiverse? Now obviously, in this specific context

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we are discussing fictional multiverses, not Real Multiverse Theory, none of that stuff.

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Not particularly interesting to me. But in fiction the concept of a multiverse is essentially a setting

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that contains multiple universes or timelines, and the setting that the protagonists - the main characters -

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are from is typically just one universe out of many. A story will often introduce the concept

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of a multiverse in the context of a plotline that threatens the integrity of this home universe,

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like a bad future timeline or a threat that’s moving across dimensions or an evil alternate version

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of themselves intruding, stuff like that. It’s a very, very broad concept that covers a lot of ground.

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A lot of that ground is just fine, some of that ground is very, very bad. So let’s talk about it!

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B: This is exciting, because I have passing familiarity with some multiverse stories in kids’ media,

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like evil Danny Phantom and stuff like that.[br]R: Oh yeah, yeah. That’s on my list.

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B: Aside from a couple, you know, instances of Marvel coming into the phase four-game

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with multiversal nonsense, I am largely an outsider on this topic and I have some thoughts, but only some,

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and I don't know how strong they are. So we'll see how that develops as we go through this slideshow.

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R: Yeah, I'm excited for your input because there are a few examples in here that I know you've got thoughts on.

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But to start off, a little bit more categorization. There are, broadly speaking, two different kinds of multiverses.

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There are many worlds-multiverses and there are branching timeline-multiverses. Many worlds-multiverses,

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that's how you cover things like magical other world-stories, Narnia, Oz, you know, stuff like that.

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The characters travel from their world to another world. You know, it's essentially just a multiversal flavor on, like,

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the old sword and planet fantasy where people would be- or like Star Trek, where you've got a bunch

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of different inhabited planets and they're all very different but the people from them can come and hang out.

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B: Yeah. I believe Shakespeare's word for that was isekai. [br]R: Yes, the Bard himself, as we all know.

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So that type of multiverse, that doesn't tend to be where the problems lie. The branching timeline-multiverse

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is a different format for these stories, where instead there is this sort of concept that these are alternate versions

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of our universe, so there might be alternate versions of familiar characters. It's like, if you go from Earth to Oz,

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you're not gonna find an Oz-version of yourself. But, like, my example on this slide is Into the Spider-Verse,

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where all of those universes are extremely different, but they are on some level all different versions

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of the same universe. There are often going to be stories that have this sort of vague ambiguity between like,

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is this a branching timeline, alternate, “somebody made a different choice and now you live in Toon Town”,

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or are these worlds with different fundamental physical laws, but also there are different versions

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of the same guy across all these universes for some reason?

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B: Just imagining, like, Edison didn't get the patent for the motion picture and then therefore 150 years later

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we live in Toon Town. [br]R: Yeah, yeah. Obviously that's the only logical explanation

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for how Spider-Pig happened. [br]B: Yeah.

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R: So these universes will either strongly or superficially resemble each other. You know,

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this is where you start getting things like the time plot where it's like, “Ohh, I'm you from an alternate universe

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or from an alternate future or whatever”. Those ones tend to be a little bit more fast and loose.

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And the branching timeline-multiverse is where the problems begin. Now, multiverses disrupt the story

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that they're introduced into to varying degrees, because of course, the basic premise of a multiverse of

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“Hey, there's multiple universes, yours is just one of them” is usually accompanied by the concept

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“And your universe is under threat”, and that is the disruption. So essentially the introduction

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of the multiverse can either disrupt the story a little bit, or it can disrupt the story a whole bunch.

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Low disruption stories are like the standard multiverse travel isekai-things. The character travels from one world

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to another, but the consequences of their actions tend to be limited to whatever world they're in at the time.

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B: It’s more of a personal journey thing, and it affects how the character comes back rather than anything tangible,

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world level-stuff. [br]R: it serves, in the hero’s journey cycle

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as "this is what happens after you cross the threshold", and then when you come back the world is unchanged

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behind you. There might be sort of a large-scale general existential “Ohh, the multiverse is under threat!

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If we fix things in this world though, that won't be a problem. We'll be fine actually”.

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You know, Spider-Verse style.

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This tends to be pretty much fine. This doesn't really disrupt the audience's ability to get invested.

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It's just like, “Oh, there's a looming threat and we have some fun new characters to play with for this arc”.

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Medium disruption is when you have multiverse stories where alternate timelines and futures are visited,

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but they're usually treated as sort of compartmentalized object lessons, like, you go to the bad future

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where someone died or someone turned evil and the world is being dominated by an evil emperor

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who might be your best friend. And that's bad, but the general goal for the heroes is “get back to the past

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and prevent that from happening”. So the idea is, like, this isn't going to disrupt the main timeline,

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they're not gonna go back farther and mess up their own history. They're just gonna go back to their original timeline,

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beat the bad guy, and then everything will be sunshine and roses from then on. So a lot of time plots

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tend to follow this format. Evil characters from the future usually show up in this version.

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There might be a bit of a scare where it's like “Oh no, they’re winning, the dark future is assured!”

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But then they'll lose in the end. It'll be great. Your Danny Fantom example was very serendipitous

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because that's exactly what this is. [br]B: One brain cell.

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R: One brain cell. Then you start getting into high disruption multiverse stories,

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which is where there are shenanigans that are typically but not always of the time variety

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that alter the hero’s home timeline dramatically. Usually these alterations are fixed, but often

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there are little bits leftover that are sort of still changed. So if a bad guy goes back in time and takes over the world

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in the mid-1900s - just to pull an example out of absolutely nowhere - and then in the present the heroes

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are dealing with some weird changed alternate reality where everything sucks and then they have to go back

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and fix that, that's technically high disruption, but it does usually get mostly repaired,

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although sometimes characters, relationships will be slightly changed. Somebody might have died in the past

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or something like that can happen. This is a little bit of a danger zone because, well, we'll get to it. But basically,

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if you introduce anything that retcons things that the characters and the audience have already

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gotten invested in, you're flirting with danger. And that's when we reach the maximum level of disruption,

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which is where characters' multiversal travel or alterations to the timeline are permanent.

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Whatever they do irrevocably changes their universe or their timeline. Maybe the characters leave their universe

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of origin and they never return, or that universe is permanently changed. There's basically no concept

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of a true timeline in this setting. Continuity is completely flexible by multiverse fuckery. There are many examples

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of this, we will discuss all of the ones I have listed later in the slide show. But basically this is where I believe

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the multiverse problem begins to rear its ugly head, and it is why, when you have an established story

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where there's one main universe, one timeline that we've been following, and then the writer introduces

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a multiverse into the mix, that can be a harbinger of doom. Now, the thing is, when a writer wants to shake up

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the status quo in a big way, a multiverse can be a fun way to do it. You know, you bring in new characters,

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you bring in a threat, not just to the world, but to the very fabric of reality, it's a reasonable escalation of stakes

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from the standard “save the world”-plot line. But there are other reasons a writer might want to introduce

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a multiverse. And oftentimes when the concept is introduced, it signals that the main universe

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that we've been following is about to get rewritten, overwritten, or otherwise fundamentally changed.

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Because there is no easier way to do that, narratively speaking, than introducing “There are many worlds,

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many universes, many timelines. Things can happen that change everything fundamentally from the ground up,

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and it's totally fine!” This basically means that the cannon that we, the audience, have gotten invested in

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can very suddenly and thoroughly be changed with very little justification other than “There's a multiverse now!

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All kinds of crazy stuff can happen in the multiverse!” And a lot of writers like doing this

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when they don't want to “yes, and” their own continuity anymore and they want to start retconning things

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because that'll make things easier for them. [br]B: There is a certain point of writing long form media

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where you find that you've either written yourself into a corner or you choose to write that that wasn't actually

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a corner, that was an open doorway to a whole bunch of other stuff. And I think there's a reason that this problem

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gets highlighted in the realm of comic books and other hyper-serialized, decades long -

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approaching century long - continuities that keep building and building and building, and eventually

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some author somewhere is like “Ah shit, wait a second”. [br]R: No, yeah, exactly. Essentially,

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when you really want to basically excise a part of the cannon that you don't wanna deal with anymore,

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especially if you are working on a long form project that a ton of other people have been building up -

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like for example comic books - there's very easy ways to internally justify doing that. The problem is

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when you use a multiverse for this, it creates a canonical in-universe mechanism to retcon the plot.

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Once that concept is introduced into the setting, it can't be unintroduced. You know, you can't put that toothpaste

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back in the tube. The writer and every writer that comes after them now has permanent access to a reset button.

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And the audience therefore knows that nothing in cannon is set in stone anymore.

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B: Yeah. Once you introduce what's essentially Checkov’s gatling gun of retcons, there's no way to undo that.

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R: Yeah. So basically, when you introduce a multiverse specifically for the purpose of completely changing

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the main timeline without having to actually go back and do the heavy lifting of telling that story, you're just like,

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“Oh, things are changed. Now, that thing that happened in the 70s? It’s different! We don't need to worry

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about it anymore!” Now the audience basically knows that you can just reach back in the plot, in the timeline,

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into wherever, and say “This is different now because of multiverse stuff”. And in this context, basically,

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“multiverse” is being used as, like, “Because I said so”. But once the multiverse is introduced,

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it can be very easily used this way. And the biggest problem is one that I think a lot of writers

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don't actually think about. Because when you are the writer, your concept of the world and the story

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you're telling is already extremely flexible, because you are constantly considering possibilities and angles

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and things that you might introduce or that you might not do, or you aim to do one thing, but then

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the way it comes out on the paper, it's different. That's just a fact of how writing works. But for the audience,

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the plot is rigid, unchanging. It is set down, and then those are the axioms that they operate in

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when they are fans of this work. So I think for a writer, it can be easier mentally to be like “It's actually fine

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if I go back and tweak this thing because I was already thinking of doing it that way anyway, so it wouldn't be

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that different”. But for an audience, that's like shaking the very foundations of this world you've created.

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Where a writer's perspective on their world is by definition creatively fluid, the audience's perspective tends

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to be a little bit more like this is a foundational structure. It's solid. And when the audience sees the writer

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essentially reach back and be like “Just kidding, this is different now!”, it shakes their investment.

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A writer cannot predict what specific parts of the story the audience will be very strongly invested in.

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In a typical story without multiverse fuckery, there are tons of things an audience can get invested in.

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They can like the heroes, the villains, the supporting characters, the romantic subplots

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with the supporting characters, just the background characters sometimes. They might really like the setting,

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the worldbuilding, the magic system, the weird little quirks of “Oh, I introduced this one fun character

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who hints at a much broader universe behind them. That's pretty cool”. They might like that guy.

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But if you're the writer, you can't predict what parts of the story are going to completely resonate with your audience.

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And when you go back and you change things, it's entirely possible that you're going to rip the tablecloth out

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from under a part of the story that your audience really, really liked.