TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
The idea that parallel universes lower the stakes smells like bullshit to me, but that's mostly because I've always treated them like any other place. If you pull something in/on one city/continent/planet and you move on to another one with no immediate consequence, sit still matters. Why would a parallel universe be any different?
The idea that parallel universes lower the stakes smells like bullshit to me, but that's mostly because I've always treated them like any other place. If you pull something in/on one city/continent/planet and you move on to another one with no immediate consequence, sit still matters. Why would a parallel universe be any different?
Because in the parallel universe, the only person who knows what you did or even that whatever was done had been done is you (and whatever other trans-universe travelers there may be). The past actions that you are avoiding literally might never happened in the new universe you just entered.
Compared to moving to the next City/Continent/Planet or whatever, there's the possibility that your past actions will catch up to you, because those past actions still happened even if they happened over there.
And what's to say they won't catch up to you with inter dimensional travel? Are you the only person capable of it, or of learning how it can be done?
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TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
edited September 2015
Even a few decades ago, if you just moved to another city and were discrete about it, you might as well have dropped off the planet for the people who knew you.
How many stories have a protagonist or a group of protagonists travel from place to place, having an adventure at every locale they stop at?
How often do any of those adventures affect anything else afterward? How often are those places ever visited again?
For fuck's sake, Sliders was a whole show based on the specific concept of going to new places and having adventures with each new place being a parallel universe.
The only time I could see parallel universes lowering the stakes is if you completely ignore something that happened because you replaced it with an alternate universe equivalent.
You run from your mistakes to an alternate universe where you didn't make those mistakes...well, you did still make them, and there is still a universe out there where everyone remembers that you made them and then that you apparently disappeared. Also, what the hell did you do to the version of you in the universe where you didn't make the mistake? Did you kill them and take their place, or did you send them back to your old universe to deal with your mistakes?
Someone close to you dies, so you replace them with an identical version from an alternate universe. Except the one you knew still died, and now everyone from that alternate universe is missing their version of that person because you stole them.
Granted, there are stories out there that do ignore these things and just use it as an easy excuse to undo an event or bring back a character. That doesn't make the whole idea bad though, as there are lots of devices writers can use very poorly.
Of course, all of this is only really relevant for the "infinite universes" model where every choice has an alternate universe where the opposite choice was made. For a model with a limited amount of alternate universes (or just a model where only a limited amount can be accessed) each with their own distinct differences (ie. like how the DC Multiverse is generally presented), I can't really see how the stakes could be lowered. Sure, Power Girl is Earth 2's version of Supergirl, but she's an entirely different character with her own history and personality, who grew up in a world that's different from Earth 1.
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Because in the parallel universe, the only person who knows what you did or even that whatever was done had been done is you (and whatever other trans-universe travelers there may be). The past actions that you are avoiding literally might never happened in the new universe you just entered.
Compared to moving to the next City/Continent/Planet or whatever, there's the possibility that your past actions will catch up to you, because those past actions still happened even if they happened over there.
How many stories have a protagonist or a group of protagonists travel from place to place, having an adventure at every locale they stop at?
How often do any of those adventures affect anything else afterward? How often are those places ever visited again?
For fuck's sake, Sliders was a whole show based on the specific concept of going to new places and having adventures with each new place being a parallel universe.
You run from your mistakes to an alternate universe where you didn't make those mistakes...well, you did still make them, and there is still a universe out there where everyone remembers that you made them and then that you apparently disappeared. Also, what the hell did you do to the version of you in the universe where you didn't make the mistake? Did you kill them and take their place, or did you send them back to your old universe to deal with your mistakes?
Someone close to you dies, so you replace them with an identical version from an alternate universe. Except the one you knew still died, and now everyone from that alternate universe is missing their version of that person because you stole them.
Granted, there are stories out there that do ignore these things and just use it as an easy excuse to undo an event or bring back a character. That doesn't make the whole idea bad though, as there are lots of devices writers can use very poorly.
Of course, all of this is only really relevant for the "infinite universes" model where every choice has an alternate universe where the opposite choice was made. For a model with a limited amount of alternate universes (or just a model where only a limited amount can be accessed) each with their own distinct differences (ie. like how the DC Multiverse is generally presented), I can't really see how the stakes could be lowered. Sure, Power Girl is Earth 2's version of Supergirl, but she's an entirely different character with her own history and personality, who grew up in a world that's different from Earth 1.