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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!
R: Moderately special, you know,
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in the grand calculus of the multiverse.
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-
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.
R: Oh yeah, yeah. That’s on my list.
